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Re: Appropriate to use textarea to display text?

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Apr 30, 2005 3:11PM

Randy Pearson wrote:

> Accessibility notwithstanding, I don't think it's even valid markup to use a
> TEXTAREA outside of a FORM.


From the original question, I think he meant the T&C was the last part in a form.

> That aside, your concern seems appropriate.


To play devil's advocate for a second: once you make the TEXTAREA read-only, though, it becomes a bit ambiguous whether or not it's appropriate. If nothing else, having the T&C this way ensures that even when tabbing from one form widget to the next (forms mode or similar), the user is presented with the information. I'd almost argue that this solution is more usable than an equivalent CSS-driven scroll box, as the user is not required to jump out forms mode.

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Patrick H. Lauke
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