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Re: column headings, labels, form elements

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From: Penguin-Love.Com
Date: Aug 1, 2002 11:57AM

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Lori K. Brown" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 11:43 AM
Subject: column headings, labels, form elements


> Dear WebAIM:
>
> I work on a web-based collaboration software product called SiteScape
> Forum. We are attempting to make the HTML that our product renders
> standards compliant and accessible in the coming version.
>
> In a number of instances we list entries in a table, and the first few
> columns of data include a checkbox that users can click to select the
> item for deletion. Currently, the column that contains that checkbox
> does not have any heading text above it, and there's really no logical
> (at least to us) space available in the table to render a label for each
> instance of the checkbox. Repetitive labeling ('this is the deletion
> checkbox') seems pretty pointless, and a waste of screen real estate.
>
> My questions:
>
> 1) Does every column of a data table HAVE to have some kind of text
> heading? I understand that column headings should be associated with the
> data they label, but do I in fact need to supply headings in the first
> place? (I think it's common sense, but we cannot come to agreement on
> this in my dept.)
>
> 2) Can I solve this problem by using a title attribute on the checkbox
> to label it for text reader users, since the purpose of the check box is
> readily apparent to sighted users?
>
> To make it easier to tell what the heck I'm talking about, I have
> uploaded a screen capture of the table I am talking about at:
> http://www.sitescape.com/other/tableslabels.gif
>
> The columns that do have headings above them are associated with their
> appropriate data with the tag scope="blah", as appropriate.
>
> Thanks in advance for any assistance.
>
> Lori K. Brown
> User Interface Engineer
> SiteScape, Inc.
>
>
>
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