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Re: Forms, forms mode and static text interaction with Jaws.

for

From: Léonie Watson
Date: Oct 6, 2012 4:28AM

Ramya Sethuraman wrote:
"What is the best way to deal with free floating static text in the middle
of input fields in a form? This means, it doesn't make sense to use
aria-describedby to associate the free text with any input field but at the
same time if the screen reader user is navigating the form by tabbing, it is
essential that he read that paragraph of text."

It sounds as though the static text has relevance to completing the form, so
would aria-labelledby do the trick?


Léonie.
-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Ramya Sethuraman
Sent: 05 October 2012 23:13
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Forms, forms mode and static text interaction with Jaws.

I am trying to solve a problem which I have come across so many times, I am
tempted to call it a pattern.
What is the best way to deal with free floating static text in the middle of
input fields in a form? This means, it doesn't make sense to use
aria-describedby to associate the free text with any input field but at the
same time if the screen reader user is navigating the form by tabbing, it is
essential that he read that paragraph of text.

For eg, say you a form within a dialog with a bunch of fields and in between
have a Terms of Agreement section with a big chunk of static text. How would
you let Jaws know this a form but there is also static text to be read?

Is it acceptable to just set a tabindex of 0 around the static text and give
it a hidden aria-label instructing Jaws users to arrow down to read the
text? How would they know to tab when the section ends then? I feel like the
existing aria tags do not solve this problem.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Ramya Sethuraman,
http://www.ramyasethuraman.com/
messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>