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Re: Navigation in HTML forms

for

From: Priti Rohra
Date: Apr 21, 2009 11:35PM

Hello Hadi,

I am a screen reader user and will not recommend use of headings for
presenting survey questions. Yes but certainly relish use of headings, for
grouping of related questions in to understandable sections and mark them
using heading level markup. This will help us to understand what all the
survey includes.

As far as navigation is concerned, screen reader users will use the Arrow
keys to access the information. In case of surveys, users are mainly asked
to select from the set of options and associating check boxes and radio
buttons using fieldset and legends should serve the purpose.
In addition, for selecting checkboxes and radio button options screen reader
users no longer have to turn on "Forms Mode" either and they can navigate to
next question by simply using "Jump to different element" keystroke
supported by most of the screen readers today.

Thanks & Regards,
Priti Rohra
Accessibility Tester
Net Systems Informatics (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Web: www.n-syst.com | www.barrierbreak.com
Blog: www.barrierbreak.com/blog

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Hadi Rangin" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:07 PM
Subject: [WebAIM] Navigation in HTML forms


> Hello,
>
> For many years we have been recommending to use fieldset/legend elements
> to
> make radio buttons and check boxes accessible. With this technique you
> associate each
> radio or checkbox item with the proper legend element so a screen reader
> user always knows what group of radio or checkbox items he is dealing
> with.
> so far so good.
>
> On the other hand, I have been recommending to make the question surveys a
> heading (h2-h6) especially in large surveys. This would allow screen
> reader
> users to navigate easily between questions and/or skip selected questions
> using screen reader heading navigation function.
>
> Here's the problem:
>
> Apparently, HTMl does not allow the use of header elements inside or
> outside
> the legend element so I can't not make my radio or checkbox question a
> heading in the form. See the question 3 and 4 at:
>
> http://illinois.edu/goto/TestSurvey
>
> If they were using ordered list for the survey questions, there wouldn't
> be
> a strong need to make the questions a heading because screen reader
> programs
> offer a good navigation mechanism for lists; question numbering is hard
> coded and are not coming from OL.
>
> Here's my questions and I would be thankful if you share your feedback
> with
> me and/or the group.
>
> 1. How many of you in particular screen reader users use the heading
> navigation in a mid-size or large surveys.
>
> 2. Do you consider making survey questions a heading as a Best Practice
> for
> mid-size or large HTML forms?
> Note that in large surveys you might need to skip one or a set of survey
> questions so you need a mean to easily jump over selected questions.
>
> Thanks,
> Hadi
>
>
>