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Re: "<label>" for search field

for

From: Steven Faulkner
Date: May 18, 2010 4:00AM

The title attribute content on a form control is exposed as the
accessible name value by browsers in accessibility APIs such as MSAA
and IA2, this is the reason why that it is well supported by assistive
technology.

so as far as the browser is concerned
<input type="text" title="label">
<label for="lb">label</label> <input type="text" id="lb">

result in the same information being passed to the accessibility API.

issues occur when an author uses both:

<label for="lb">label</label> <input type="text" id="lb" title="label title">

As the <label> text is used for the accessible name and the title text
is used for the accessible description. The exposure of the text in
the accessible description is not so well supported by AT, for example
until recent versions JAWS did not provide access to this info and it
still only provides it on form controls.
This can be further complicated as AT may provide user preferences
that favour one (title/label) over the other or only announce one or
the other.


regards
stevef

On 18 May 2010 07:51, Priti Rohra < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hi Mike,
>
> Providing Title attribute is sufficient and it will be read out by a screen
> reader irrespective of the navigation method opted by the user, i.e. Tab key
> or Arrow keys. Also the Title attribute is sufficient as per WCAG 2.0
> techniques.
>
> Thanks & Regards,
> Priti Rohra
> Senior Accessibility Consultant
> Net Systems Informatics (India) Pvt. Ltd. & BarrierBreak Technologies
> Web: www.n-syst.com | www.barrierbreak.com
> Blog: www.barrierbreak.com/blog
>
> Please don't print this email unless you really need to. This will preserve
> trees on our planet.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Langum, Michael J" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> To: "'WebAIM Discussion List'" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 12:20 AM
> Subject: [WebAIM] "<label>" for search field
>
>
>> Our designers don't like the idea of the word "Search" just before our
>> standard site "search" field.  They feel that for sighted users, the
>> placement just above the words "Advanced Search" in the upper right corner
>> of the standard site-wide banner is a clear enough.  And the use of
>> "title" attribute in the actual <input> tag is good enough for screen
>> reader users.
>>
>> What is the groups thinking on the adequacy of relying solely on "title"
>> attributes to give a prompt for the standard site search field?
>> <form action="search.asp" method="GET" name="gs" id="SearchForm">
>> <input name="q" id="q" title="Search the OPM Site" size="26" type="text">
>> <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Go">
>> </form>
>>
>> -- Mike
>>
>>