WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

RE: Long form legends

for

From: Jim Allan
Date: May 31, 2005 9:50AM

As you tab through a form you only hear type of form control, it's state (if
it has one), associated label or title, associated field set (if it has
one).
a heading would not be read in forms mode, unless it were also marked as a
label for the form control. LABEL can be contained within a block level
element, so a heading can be a label.
Screen readers can only be in one "mode" at a time - reading, forms, table,
etc. it varies between screen reader as to how many modes. This is also true
for HomePage Reader.

Jim Allan, Webmaster & Statewide Technical Support Specialist
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
voice 512.206.9315 fax: 512.206.9264 http://www.tsbvi.edu/
---> Share to Win!! <---

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]On Behalf Of Joelle Tegwen
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 10:21 AM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: RE: [WebAIM] Long form legends


Does that get read correctly by the screen readers? If they don't read
paragraphs (or so I heard) then do they read the headings as you tab through
the form? Are the headings associated with the correct questions so people
with screen readers know where they are?

Joelle

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Mike Foskett
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 9:02 AM
To: Christian Heilmann; WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: RE: [WebAIM] Long form legends

Hi Christian,
How about dropping legend and use a heading instead?

Mike 2k:)2

-----Original Message-----
From: Christian Heilmann [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: 31 May 2005 15:33
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Long form legends

> Note the <br> tags in the legends. We need these for some browsers
> because they don't wrap the legend automatically and some of those
> don't accept styling on the legend tag. (very frustrating) But on the
> Mac browsers (that do wrap automatically), if your browser width is
> too small, you get odd wrapping because you get the <br>s and the
wrapping.
>
> We used to have the long questions inside a <p> inside the fieldset,
> but heard that was bad for people using screen readers because they
> don't read <p>s in "forms mode"
>
> What do we do?

What you could do is only apply the BRs via scripting for certain browsers.
That is the road to destruction though.

How about rethinking and rewriting the form?

A legend with a yes / no radio button is the same as a checkbox with a
label:

<input .... ><label ...>I need some support from someone while I am
on-site.</label>

--
Chris Heilmann
Blog: http://www.wait-till-i.com
Writing: http://icant.co.uk/
Binaries: http://www.onlinetools.org/
_______________________________________________
To manage your subscription, visit http://list.webaim.org/ Address list
messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>





**********************************************************************
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they
are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify
the system manager.
This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by
MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses.
www.mimesweeper.com
**********************************************************************