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Re: Labels for form controls

for

From: Paul Bohman
Date: May 19, 2005 4:20PM

Michael Roush wrote:

> On the page, I am including a sign-up form that they requested. WAVE
> asked me to supply a label for one of the form controls (the submit
> button). Presumably, the value of the Submit button is not enough of
> a description/label.

Submit buttons do not require labels. I'm not sure why WAVE would be
saying that it needs a label. Could you provide a URL for us to look at?


In order to satisfy the checker, I put in a
> text label for the Submit button and styled the label with "display:
> none;" so that it wouldn't show up. Now the checker is satisfied,
> but I am having a hard time believing this makes the page more
> understandable and accessible.

This is unnecessary. There may be another problem in the page that is
causing the error to show up... or maybe you found a bug in WAVE. That's
why I'd like to look at the page to find out what the situation is.

> Is there a technique I'm missing that I should be using? Is this
> just one of those instances where conforming to a guideline may mean
> a reduction in accessibility?

No, you're not missing anything. Submit buttons don't require labels,
and adding labels to them does not increase accessibility.

--
Paul Bohman
Director of Products and Services
WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)
www.webaim.org
Utah State University
www.usu.edu