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Re: Accessible conditional form fields

for

From: Jim Allan
Date: Nov 2, 2010 4:12PM

For non-form control text between form controls (I have heard it
called 'intervening text')
you would add a <p tabindex="0">a bunch of text</p> this forces the
element to be in the tab order exactly in the place it occurs in the
source code. When a user tabs from a form control the intervening
paragraph will get a visual focus box to call attention to it, and
Jaws reads the paragraph.
Using Jaws 10 (you mileage may vary depending on the version of Jaws)
the paragraph will always be spoken. Using a <div tabindex="0"> make
Jaws 'beep' but nothing else (if you down arrow you can hear the
content of the <div>.
using <ul tabindex="0">, makes Jaws 'beep' and say "List". you then
have to arrow down through the list.

<P> seems to work the best. I have used this for instructions.

simple html form

<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="">
<p>
<label for="w">name</label>
<input type="text" name="w" id="w" />
</p>
<p tabindex="0">this is a paragraph with tabindex="0"</p>
<p tabindex="0">this is a another paragraph with tabindex="0"</p>
<div tabindex="0">this is a div with tabindex="0"</div>
<div tabindex="0">this is a div with tabindex="0"
<p>this is paragraph without tabindex="0" inside the div</p>
</div>
<div tabindex="0">
<p>this is a paragraph inside the second div with tabindex="0"</p>
<p>this is another paragraph inside the div</p>
</div>
<ul tabindex="0">
<li>item one </li>
<li> item 2</li>
</ul>
<p>
<label for="x">foo</label>
<input type="text" name="x" id="x" />
</p>
</form>

Jim

On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 4:10 PM, D A < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> H3 are only read when not in forms mode, i.e. when using the arrow key
>> to read through the document or using the say all command. when in
>> forms mode (Jaws 10 and before) everything other than form controls is
>> skip.
>
> Interesting.
>
> That raises some other questions. Many of the forms we create have
> non-form text intermingled within the form itself. For instance, a
> text field may have a label, and then also some 'help' text
> afterwords. Or a section of the form may have a paragraph of
> explanatory text for that section.
>
> A common scenario I see often is a paragraph or two of text that is a
> legal disclaimer along the lines of 'by submitting this form you are
> certifying that...'
>
> How to folks that use JAWS deal with complex forms that intermingle
> non-form content like that?
>
> -Darrel
>