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RE: Accessible forms question

for

From: Patrick Lauke
Date: May 31, 2005 8:07AM

> Jim Thatcher

> The social security number in three parts or US zip+4 codes
> in two parts are
> typical of a situation where visual layout replaces on-screen text for
> labeling.

Fair enough...but I'd still think that having a single input makes
more sense for all users (but admittedly this is a usability issue).

> Have a client side
> script that checks the sizes rather burdening the listener -

Are you suggesting a javascript that automatically sets the focus to
the next segment when a certain character count has been reached? If so,
I thought I'd seen fairly conclusive evidence that this sort of thing
should be avoided, as it can and will cause confusion - going against
expected browser behaviour, often not triggering any indication to
assistive technology that the focus has indeed moved and, when implemented
badly, can prevent users from tabbing back ... or are we just talking about
limiting the number of characters that can be entered (in which case
a simple maxlength attribute on the input would suffice)?

Patrick
________________________________
Patrick H. Lauke
Webmaster / University of Salford
http://www.salford.ac.uk