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Re: Definition Lists Within Forms

for

From: adam solomon
Date: Feb 18, 2011 3:12AM

Semantically, it is not, in my humble opinion, the best way to go. I
wouldn't consider a label and its correlated control as a term and
definition. I usually reserve dl's for situations where I have no other way
of correlating a pair of data. But with form controls, the label takes care
of that. It sounds from your description that it is more of a styling
decision. If that is true, we are sort of mixing structure and presentation.
On a different note, I can tell you from experience that definition lists
are one of the toughest markups to style. There is relatively poor support
among browsers for a wide range of css for dt and dd elements.

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 2:14 AM, Elle < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> A question came up during a code standards meeting today, and I was asked
> about the impact to accessibility. The development team wanted to use a
> definition list to help categorize form elements, along with labels. I
> didn't know of any issues, as long as other rules were followed (fieldsets,
> legends, labels, etc.). I can't find any research so far that implies using
> definition lists *in addition to *other elements would have any negative
> impacts on accessibility. I only find examples where *replacing* a form
> element (like a label) with a definition list element would be a bad
> decision. So, are there any drawbacks that you guys can see if a person
> follows all WCAG 2.0 guidelines and still chooses to contain some related
> form elements within a definition list?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Elle
>
>
> If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the people to gather wood,
> divide
> the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and
> endless sea.
> - Antoine De Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
>