WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Is use of <label> and title redundant?

for

From: Bryan Garaventa
Date: Nov 19, 2012 11:50AM

When you refer to browse mode, do you mean when using the arrow keys to
navigate up and down the page in the Virtual Buffer?

When title attributes are included on form fields, I'm hearing these
announced correctly as form field labels in addition to tabbing using
interactive mode.

This can be broken if a title attribute is included on a form field that
also includes an explicit label element with matching for and ID attributes
in some ATs though.



----- Original Message -----
From: "GILLENWATER, ZOE M" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 10:17 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Is use of <label> and title redundant?


Hi Sailesh,

But if you were using visible labels you *would* hear them read in browse
mode, so using title text that is not read in browse mode is a different
experience from the norm, and it seems to me a worse one.

For instance, if I had three fields for month, day, and year of a birthday,
and each had a visible label in front of it, I would hear in browse mode
something like "Birthday. Month, edit, blank. Day, edit, blank. Year, edit,
blank." It's clear to me what those fields are, which allows me to know
whether or not I want to enter forms mode and fill out this form.

But if I got rid of the visible labels and just used title text, some screen
reader users would now hear in browse mode something like "Birthday. Edit,
blank. Edit, blank. Edit, blank." You don't think this is a worse experience
than the former? Sure, I can guess at what each of those fields is, and have
my guess validated when I enter forms mode and finally hear the title text,
but why should the user have to do this? Why not just provide hidden labels
so they hear the exact same thing they would hear had visible labels been
used instead?

I still don't see what advantage using title has over a hidden label, apart
from:
-- it's slightly less bytes of HTML
-- it's slightly easier to implement (if you don't already have a hiding CSS
class in your CSS, but if you do, creating hidden labels is pretty much just
as easy)
-- it will show on hover as a tooltip to mouse-using sighted users (which
could be seen as a disadvantage by some people in some situations)

What am I missing? Are these the only reasons why you find title to be
superior?

Thanks,
Zoe



Zoe Gillenwater
Web Accessibility Technical Architect
AT&T Consumer Digital Experience

o: 919-241-4083
e: <EMAIL REMOVED>

4625 Creekstone Dr | Durham, NC 27703

This email and any files transmitted with it are AT&T property, are
confidential, and are intended solely for the use of the individual or
entity to whom this email is addressed. If you are not one of the named
recipient(s) or otherwise have reason to believe that you have received this
message in error, please notify the sender and delete this message
immediately from your computer. Any other uses, retention, dissemination,
forwarding, printing, or copying of this email is strictly prohibited.