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RE: <label> element

for

From: Jim Thatcher
Date: Mar 28, 2002 3:35PM

My understanding is that the actual label (LABEL with for attribute) can be
anywhere, though I haven't checked it recently.

<quote> [Bobby] also said that it failed 508 compliance because I had not
placed default, place-holding characters in edit boxes and text areas. I
don't ever remember this being a 508 requirement </quote>

The Section 508 provision (1194.22(n)) basically says you have to make the
forms accessible to people using assistive technology, so it is open to
interpretation what this means. I agree that Bobby's interpretation
requiring "place holding characters" is a stretch.

Jim
Accessibility Consulting
There's a new book on Web Accessibility. For information:
http://jimthatcher.com.

-----Original Message-----
From: Leo Smith [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2002 2:53 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: <label> element


Hi folks,

Is it necessary to have the <label for=""> markup for form controls located
within the <form></form> tags. ( I have a label in a cell adjacent to a cell
with the form control in it).

I have not read anywhere that it is, and theoretically the <label> tag
could
mark up a label located anywhere on the page, although visually you would
probably want it to be close to the control. It seems that the Bobby 508
checker likes to see the <label> markup inside the <form></form> tags.

However, when I ran one of my pages through its 508 checker
(http://www.cast.org/bobby/), it also said that it failed 508 compliance
because I had not placed default, place-holding characters in edit boxes
and text areas. I don't ever remember this being a 508 requirement (it is a
W3C III guideline, and if I remember correctly from discussion on this list,
one that is no longer necessarily a good idea.)

I guess if Bobby is giving me this kind of feedback on my pages, I cannot
take its evaluations too seriously. Unfortunately, such checkers can be
used by folks for evaluation purposes when they are either not able or do
not want to make the effort to manually check a page (*always* my
preferred method).

Leo.



{HYPERLINK "http://bobby.cast.org:80/bobby/html/en/gls/g109.html"}




Leo Smith
Web Designer/Developer
USM Office of Publications and Marketing
University of Southern Maine
207-780-4774


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