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Is a label element helpful here?

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From: Celeste Mackintosh
Date: Jun 28, 2010 5:57PM


Hi everyone,

I'm looking at making a tool like this one http://maine.gov/msl/services/calculator.htm for our library (this is a free tool available through the American Library Association, created by the Massachusetts Library Association).

My question is, since in the last column of this table/form, user input isn't actually what's being sought, is having a label element here helpful? Here's an example of a row - check out the final table cell to see the input I'm talking about:

<tr>
<td><input type="text" name="child" id="child" size="5" onchange="doCalculator()" tabindex="3" /></td>
<td><label for="child">Children Books Borrowed</label></td>
<td><label for="childResult">$
<input type="text" id="childResult" size="5" value="0.00" /></label></td>
</tr>

We're also going to link to a non-javascript straight table of relative values or a spreadsheet. Does this last label element need to be there? Having the label element for the first input seems useful, since it means a wider area where people can click to get access to that input, but the last one the label seems not so helpful...

Any help would be really appreciated! :)

Many thanks,

Celeste