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Re: "<label>" for search field

for

From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: May 18, 2010 7:42AM

If I were in this situation, I would probably ask the designers why they
don't like adding the label. It might give you insights into how they
determine a design is clear enough and if they think there is such a
thing as too much clarity.

The fact is it is easy enough to make this design accessible. However,
the extra knowledge might allow you to explain how accessibility should
fit into their thoughts about what makes a design clear or
understandable. That then may make things easier to resolve in the
future when they want to use a design which you can't make accessible.




-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Langum,
Michael J
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 1:51 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
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