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Required and/or aria-required in Form Controls

for

From: Stella M
Date: Jul 5, 2015 6:21AM

I've just
recently joined the mailing list so it might be possible that the same question
popped-up before and has been discussed already. If so could you please refer
me to the discussion?


If
required fields in form controls are only marked up with CSS e.g.
border-left: 3px solid #f24e30, padding-left: 3px; which option would you
go for?


a) required (html5 attribute)

b) aria-required="true"

c) required aria-required (html5 attribute and aria
attribute)

d) hidden text (required) placed in a label (using
http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20120103/C7)


I
wouldn't choose option a) because JAWS 15 in IE does not announce required
fields.


Option b)
is supported in Jaws 15 in IE and NVDA in Firefox so I'll go for this option.


Option c)
seems a bit cluttered so I would leave it out even though Jaws 15 in IE
announces required field and NVDA in /Firefox announces required field once
(there is no audio clutter).


Option d)
works everywhere and anytime so I'll go for it.


So I have
two favourite options and I'm not sure which one to choose from. If I see the
site was coded using ARIA attributes I suggest using
aria-required="true"(option b)). If I don't see any ARIA on the site I suggest
using hidden text (option c)) as I don't want to give a developer a
headache with some attributes he/she never used before.


What do
you think the best option would be?
Thanks,Stella