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RE: Recommended Form Input Devices

for

From: John Foliot - WATS.ca
Date: Dec 2, 2003 8:04AM

Hi Kath.

Not so long ago, I had the privilege of being part of a
demonstration/advisory team which worked with governmental developers in the
area of web accessibility. Another member of our team was mobility impaired
(quadriplegic) and used voice recognition software to access the web (and
other computer apps). When processing forms, this individual found radio
buttons and checkboxes *less* accessible than <.select> drop downs, text
inputs and/or text areas; the "fine motor control" of these speech
recognition tools made navigating the cursor onto small regions
complicated(*)... do-able for sure, but more difficult. Even when screen
text could be enlarged, these form inputs usually do not resize. His
recommendation, based upon his personal experience, was that dropdowns where
*more* accessible. If the form collection allowed the use of this input
over that of the radio button or checkbox then it would be his preferred
solution.

Caveat: the individual in question used an older version of Dragon Dictate
(predecessor to Naturally Speaking) for these demonstrations; newer versions
of this particular tool has made significant advances in form processing.
However, despite the relatively reasonable cost of this adaptive technology,
not all users may have yet been in the position to upgrade, and so
understanding your target audience is also an important consideration - how
"backward compatible" do you need to make it?

Might I suggest that no matter which form input you ultimately do decide
upon, that the appropriate use of the <.label>, <.fieldset>, and <.legend>
elements be employed in your form as these advanced elements <sic> aid
considerably in form navigation for many users of AT.

Good Luck

JF
--
John Foliot <EMAIL REMOVED>
Web Accessibility Specialist / Co-founder of WATS.ca
Web Accessibility Testing and Services
http://www.wats.ca 1.866.932.4878 (North America)


(* While not part of the original question, as an aside, the size of
"clickable" regions on your web page *may* be an issue for mobility impaired
users... something to keep in mind when employing icons and other small
elements on your page. We usually recommended that icons etc. have at least
an overall area of 35 pixels square if they are intended to be hyperlinked.
The image "picture" need not be that large, but the overall area (using the
transparency of the GIF or PNG formats) should not be smaller.)


>
> We are puzzling over which form input devices (i.e. drop down,
> radio button or text box) are most usable and would meet the
> needs of a broad spectrum of disabled users.
>
> We not only need a device which is screen reader friendly but it
> should also be easy to use for those with motor impairments
>
> Can anyone advise us please?
>



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