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Re: Alternatives to LEGEND for a radio button?

for

From: Geof Collis
Date: Sep 8, 2009 11:55AM

Hi Andrew

I dont have anything for fieldset and legend, I'm
using JAWS 6.0, but as I said I dont want to turn
them off as it will interfere with my ability to
test foraccessibility and useability.

cheers

Geof




At 01:37 PM 9/8/2009, you wrote:
>Geoff,
>
> >From the JAWS help file:
>If you do not wish to hear the "fieldset" legend
>information, disable it in Configuration
>Manager, Verbosity Options. Select the button
>for the verbosity level you are using. In the
>Speech Output Types list, move to the Control
>Group Name check box and press SPACEBAR to clear
>the check mark. Select Ok to accept your
>changes, select Ok again, then save the open
>configuration file to save your settings. For
>more information, refer to Verbosity Options.
>
>Thanks,
>AWK
>
>Andrew Kirkpatrick
>
>Senior Product Manager, Accessibility
>
>Adobe Systems
>
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
>[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Geof Collis
>Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 1:29 PM
>To: WebAIM Discussion List
>Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Alternatives to LEGEND for a radio button?
>
>Hi Andrew
>
>I wasn't aware of that, the only thing I can see
>is element access, would that be it? I dont like
>to turn anything off since I need to hear
>everything that is going on because I do accessibility audits and hand code.
>
>cheers
>
>Geof
>
>
>At 12:50 PM 9/8/2009, you wrote:
> >Geoff,
> >Are you aware that you can turn off the voicing
> >of the legend for controls contained in the fieldset?
> >
> >I think that Evan said it best earlier - that
> >the legend with the fieldset is currently the
> >best way to establish a semantic association
> >between the radios or checkboxes and the group
> >label, and how it is voiced is up to the screen reader application.
> >
> >Even if all web developers decided that they
> >would all skip fieldset and legend and would all
> >use an HTML heading before a set of radio
> >buttons, you still would need to deal with how
> >any given assistive technology supports that
> >convention. If you don't like the way JAWS
> >reads HTML, you should absolutely raise the issue with Freedom Scientific.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >AWK
> >
> >Andrew Kirkpatrick
> >
> >Senior Product Manager, Accessibility
> >
> >Adobe Systems
> >
> > <EMAIL REMOVED>
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> >[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Geof Collis
> >Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 12:43 PM
> >To: WebAIM Discussion List
> >Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Alternatives to LEGEND for a radio button?
> >
> >Hi Darrel
> >
> >In the case of radio buttons JAWS tells me how
> >many to choose from, checkboxes aren't but it is
> >just as easy to tab over them, out of JAWS mode
> >and hit the space bar to select which ones I
> >want. I personally just need text in front of the
> >list of items telling me to make my choice as follows:
> >
> >1)What are your favourite foods,please check all that apply:
> >chees
> >eggs
> >onions
> >
> >2)What are your favourite colours, please check all that apply:
> >
> >blue
> >red
> >green
> >
> >and so on.
> >
> >It seems to me that forms are changing to the
> >point of being noisy, or too much information
> >that I dont need to hear, I'm of the mindset of
> >keeping it simple. Perhaps I'm alone on this but
> >I understand breaking up information into
> >paragraphs headings and lists but forms are
> >different because of the intricacy of them, it'd
> >be like anouncing a new paragraph or line everytime I read an article.
> >
> >Having said that, if I had to choose the lesser
> >of 2 evils I'd use headings instead of legend.
> >I'm not aware that JAWS announces a heading the same way it does legend.
> >
> >cheers
> >
> >Geof
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >Geof, you mentioned the following:
> > >
> > > > I just want the  form to be a form, not something cooked up to make
> > > > it look good for the sighted or pass some suspect guideline and I
> > > > want the least amount of chatter from JAWS. I dont want my form
> > > > broken up by headings either. Then again maybe I'm asking to much.
> > >
> > >In your opinion, how would you prefer that a group of checkboxes be
> > >identified? For instance, if this were a list of checkboxes with
> > >labels:
> > >
> > >cheese
> > >eggs
> > >onions
> > >
> > >How would you prefer they be grouped? It seems to me that there needs
> > >to be some sort of way to identify those three form fields and their
> > >labels as "Choose your omelet ingredients" but I'm not entirely sure
> > >what I should be using mark-up wise to accomplish that. Legend seemed
> > >like the standard answer per web standards but due to both visual
> > >rendering and verbose audio rendering, it seems like the worst option.
> > >An H2 sounds like it might be OK as it should only be read once. The
> > >key is to make sure it *is* read at least once in most screen readers
> > >(rather that skipped over when in forms mode).
> > >
> > >-Darrel
> > >