WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: 508 compliant checkbox form controls

for

From: Hoffman, Allen
Date: Aug 2, 2011 1:06PM

DHS would fail for Section 508 compliance a checkbox if it didn't
include the question also. the rationale is that the 36 CFR 1194.22(n)
requirement says all directions and cues etc. It is quite verbose about
"all". this is a difference between a standard and a guideline to some
extent--standards should be as clear as is feasible to eliminate
unclarity. One more usability caveat of this is that such items should,
as is feasible, put the answer first, so that the screen reader user can
hit the stop speech key if they don't need the question re-read, but
that is strictly usability, not something the standard documents in
text/requirement. I think this is a misconception driven by screen
reader testing, which is not what the standard says.







-----Original Message-----
From: Ritz, Courtney L. (GSFC-7500) [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2011 4:38 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List ( <EMAIL REMOVED> )
Subject: [WebAIM] 508 compliant checkbox form controls

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