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508 compliant checkbox form controls

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From: Ritz, Courtney L. (GSFC-7500)
Date: Aug 1, 2011 2:36PM

Hi all,

I know that there are times when 'accessible" and "Section 508 compliant" don't always mean the same thing.
A colleague and I are arguing over this regarding checkbox form controls.

When I talk to people about making form controls Section 508 compliant, I often refer them to
http://webaim.org/techniques/forms/controls
for accessible code examples for various types of controls.
And I think of the example there, for pizza toppings, as the best way to set up checkboxes, since the question text is associated with each checkbox control.

My colleague has a checkbox on a form, and though there is a LABEL for each of the checkbox items, the question text is not associated with them. For instance, if we had the pizza toppings example, tabbing through the boxes would give me "Ham," "Pepperoni," "Mushrooms," ETC, without hearing "Select your pizza toppings:" (I'm a JAWS user.)

So my question is, could my colleague's checkbox still be considered to be Section 508 compliant, even though it's not as accessible as it could be?

Courtney