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Effect of using submit button without a value

for

From: Dean Hamack
Date: Mar 22, 2010 1:48PM

Hi folks,

I've been tasked with creating a mobile web application for a large cellular
company. I know we have a long way to go before mobile devices are truly
accessible, but the iPhone and Android devices already have screenreading
capabilities built in, so I'm trying to build with best practices and
looking towards the future.

Normally when I create custom buttons in a web app, I simply make the text
transparent, and then put a background image in. But a lot of mobile devices
don't support transparent text. So I have two choices:

1. Use an image instead of a submit input. I don't like to do this, because
it violates the rule of separating presentation from content, and it makes
it harder to update the appearance later because you have to edit the html,
and not just the css.

2. Use a submit input with no label, like so: <input id="search"
name="search" type="submit" value="" />

I'm inclined to go with number two, but I'm wondering how that would be
dealt with by a screen reader. Thoughts?