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RE: Form objects and Section 508

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From: Jukka Korpela
Date: Mar 26, 2002 12:51AM

Kevin Spruill wrote:

> - - The Section 508 guidelines state: - -
> "Don't configure the fields with default text entry, since an AT user
> expects to encounter blank space for a field so he can enter his own
> information"
>
> Which is fine except for the fact that it contradicts the W3C
> recommendation - -

I'm sure the contradiction is intentional, and some arguments are given in
the text quoted above. Note that the W3C recommendation is in the oddly
titled section 10, "Use interim solutions". (It's oddly titled, since it's
surely not intended to be taken as an absolute recommendation the same way
as other section titles are. The idea is, surely, to use interim solutions -
or workarounds, or tricks - _if forced to_ by flaws and deficiencies in
browsers.)

The W3C recommendation says: "Until user agents handle empty controls
correctly, include default, place-holding characters in edit boxes and text
areas. [Priority 3]" And I think we can now say that user agents handle
empty controls correctly so widely that an authors creates more problems,
accessibilitywise too, by using dummy content than by not using them.

Quite practically, consider a user with comprehension problems. Any fill-out
form is a challenge - what does it mean, what do all the different parts
mean, what should he do with them? We can reduce the problems by using a
simple structure and making it as obvious as possible, such as the simple
pattern of a label (telling what the user is expected to input) and an
associated field, so that this pair is indicated as a pair. It may help if
the field itself is prefilled with some data that is expected to be what the
user wants to input, in many cases, so it makes sense to make it a default,
and it might also give an additional hint of the _type_ of data expected.
If, for example, the field is for specifying a year, "2002" might be a
sensible default, and even if it is overridden by the user, it tells that he
is expected to type a four-digit year, not e.g. the words "next year".

So how do "default, place-holding characters" fit into this? They don't.
Text like "Your name" is not supposed to be a meaningful default, is it? And
it confuses the general structure: how is the user expected to figure out
which defaults are defaults and which are placeholders? _Any_ user, even a
mentally retarded person? Even taken alone, it's confusing. Anything that
can be misunderstood, will be misunderstood. Even a "normal" person, if
there is one, could assume that this means that the name is optional, and
accepting the default "Your name" is a way of telling that you don't want to
tell your name.

--
Jukka Korpela
TIEKE Tietoyhteiskunnan kehitt