WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: proper use of labels

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Jun 13, 2005 11:10AM

> Am I being overly rigid? Or am I correct in sticking with the W3C's
> label = text [CS] ?

I don't think there is a problem with having non-text labels. The W3C
links you refer to (if I'm able to understand the W3C-speak correctly)
only require that the label ATTRIBUTE of the OPTION and OPTGROUP tags be
text. I don't see anything in the specs that require the contents of the
label ELEMENT to be text-only.

Still, it comes down to testing. Your example works flawlessly in Home
Page Reader. Though JAWS doesn't like my computer, I imagine it too will
work, though it will likely identify the presence of the image, which may
be slightly confusing. There is also the lost usability of those of us who
can see not being able to tell what the drop-down is actually for (unless
an adjacent button is labeled "Quick Search"). Also, we lose the ability
to click the label and have focus placed on the form element. With that
said, I don't see this as being a problem, though others will likely chime in.

Jared Smith
WebAIM.org