WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Accessible form field hint text

for

From: Denise
Date: Jun 24, 2013 6:38AM

Hi,
I am trying to make my form more accessible and could really use some advice, and guidance as to best practice.

Currently we have some hint/help text that is displayed (using Javascript to set the style to block) when the input gets focus. The help text is in a div after the input field.

In some cases there are two input fields next to each other e.g. for a date but both sets of hints are after both inputs, i.e. input month, input year, help text month, help text year.
This means that the help text month can't be read by the screen reader using the keyboard as the focus goes to the year input.

My main concerns:
* reliance on Javascript
* no association between the help text and the form input
* screen reader not being able to read out help text for first of multiple input when using keyboard due to positioning in html
* does a screen reader user expect to switch between focus mode to text reading mode after each input?
* should we just have one help text for the month/year combined.

Thanks in advance for your help