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Re: Screen reader Forms Mode as Only Interaction Method?

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From: Lovely, Brian (CONT)
Date: Mar 3, 2017 7:32AM

I have a related question about forms. What do you think about tooltips in forms? I'm talking specifically about little question mark icons that ask and then answer some anticipated question about the reason for asking a question or about how to go about answering the question. I have a number of problems with them:

1. I didn't even think about this previously, but I can see the value of staying in forms mode throughout the completion of a form, so a tooltip requires switching to browse mode.

2. If you think someone needs to know something, why not just put it in plain text? Why make them do a little dance with an icon to get the information?

3. They are almost never coded accessibly to start with, and they are often coded in such a way that it is harder to make them accessible than if they were designed to be accessible from the beginning.

4. They tend to be enclosed by the label element, which just seems all kind of wrong to me: <label for="ss_number>Social Security Number <a href="tooltip_javascript">Why do we need this?</a></label>


Anyone have any thoughts on tooltips in forms?


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