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RE: default values in type="text"

for

From: Jukka Korpela
Date: Nov 11, 2002 12:20AM

Bill Mason wrote:

> I think this specific requirement about default input form
> values is dated, though.

Or let's say that it's become obsolete, since it implied a condition
(effectively, "if user agents cannot handle empty controls correctly"),
which now can hardly ever be met.

> As the guidelines says, "Until user agents handle
> empty controls correctly...." I think we're at that point.

Exactly. And this, by the way, shows how misleading various
"accessibility checking" software can be: they apply some rules
that ignore essential points like conditions (or, to take another
example, meaningfulness - they could e.g. check whether each <input>
element has a <label> associated with it, but hardly whether the
association is _correct_).

The "placeholder" guideline was never a good idea IMHO. Even when
it helped some user agents behave better, it surely confused users.
It conflicts with the idea of providing a useful initial (default)
value, often based on suitable information, making it probable
that the user may actually accept the initial value as his input.

--
Jukka Korpela, senior adviser
TIEKE Finnish Information Society Development Centre
http://www.tieke.fi/
Diffuse Business Guide to Web Accessibility and Design for All:
http://www.diffuse.org/accessibility.html


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