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Radio Buttons in a Data Table

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From: David Ashleydale
Date: Jul 10, 2012 4:20PM

Hi,

I wanted to see if anyone here has an opinion on the use of radio buttons
inside a data table. The header of each row is a type of product and the
columns are product features. There is a radio button in each data cell.
Not every feature is available for every product, so there's not a radio
button in every column for every product. This set up allows users to
choose one available feature for every product -- the radio buttons in each
row are in the same "set" so only one can be chosen in each row.

For those of you that can see images, here is an image of something similar
to what I'm talking about:
[image: Table of Radio Buttons Survey Question]
What is the best way to make a set up like this more accessible? Normally,
I try to code radio buttons in fieldsets, but that isn't possible if each
radio button is in its own table cell. Also, the radio buttons can't have
explicit labels -- all of the radio buttons in one column share one "label"
-- the column header.

Normally, I would try to suggest that this design not be used -- I don't
like mixing forms with data tables. But visually, it is more compact than
repeating the labels for every radio button.

My initial thought is to add a TITLE attribute to each of the radio buttons
explaining which product and feature it is for. Will that be sufficient or
are there other things I could do to make this design more accessible?

Thanks,
David