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RE: WCAG and form labels

for

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Aug 21, 2006 11:10AM

Jared,
Your example below is explicitly labeled. I've always thought that if
you wrap a label around a control that it sould count as explicit, but
it doesn't unless the for/id are used. When they are used you have
explicit labeling. If WCAG 2.0 disallows this I'd be very surprised and
would lobby against this, since it works and also has benefits for
styling forms (applying css rules to the label element such as label
{display:block;} )

AWK

> In researching, I found the WCAG 2.0 documentation -
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-WCAG20-HTML-TECHS-20050630/#label
> - that again states that explicit labeling should always be present.
> Great! It also states that implicit association is deprecated
> and should NOT be used. So if my interpretation is correct,
> then a construct like the following is not allowed in WCAG 2.0:
>
> <label for="firstname">First Name
> <input type="text" id="firstname">
> </label>
>
> In looking at the examples, it would appear this is implicit
> labeling and as such is deprecated and shouldn't be used. I'm
> just wondering if others have the same interpretation and if
> they think this is correct or not. This is method that is
> prescribed by loads of accessibility sites.
> It is also what was originally required by WCAG 1.0. So,
> either the WCAG 2.0 documentation needs to be changed or else
> we need to stop using this method. Or maybe I'm missing something.
>
> Jared Smith
> WebAIM.org
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