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From: Terence de Giere
Date: Fri, Mar 07 2003 8:53AM
Subject: RE: accessible form feedback
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Regarding the form at http://tigger.uic.edu/~cdiaz3/CCSPD.htm (NOT
http://tigger.uic.edu/~cdiaz3/CCSPD.html as in the email to WebAim)

I find that multiple selection boxes in forms may create a problem. The
keyboard combination described for making multiple selections applies to
Internet Explorer and Netscape 4, but so far as I have discovered, other
browsers have different combinations of keys to do this, or simply do
not support multiple sections without a mouse. I was able to find
combinations for IBM Home Page Reader, and the Lynx text browser, both
different from the IE combinatin and each other, but Netscape 7 and
Opera 7 do not seem to support this function from the keyboard. If
someone has discovered how to do this for these browsers, please let us
know. (There also appears to be a difference in browser behavior with
this form control depending on whether it is one line [drop-down list]
or a box with two or more lines visible). Some older browsers only allow
a single selection from such a box when the keyboard is used.
Unfortunately this operation does not have a standardized implementation
in browsers. For example, the keyboard combination in the instructions,
when using Opera, jumps the user to a search engine input field built
into the browser interface, taking the user out of the Web page entirely.

From a usability standpoint the potential for multiple choices is only
mentioned in the keyboard instructions. It might be good to to modify
the phrase "Please select from the following" to "Please select one or
more from the following" although that will visually add more blank
space in the box. Instructions should be placed in proximity with the
specific task. This is particularly important for non visual browsing. A
non sighted user getting to the end of form might not remember that
initial mention, and cannot easily scan the page to find it again. You
can also disable the top line of the box making it non selectable with
the attribute 'disabled' (written in the HTML as disabled or
disabled="disabled"); although I found that with one older piece of
assistive technology, this disabled the entire list of options.

For Section 508 compliance, you need to use an associated label for each
form control - in the first select box you did this, but in some of the
subsequent boxes, you did not provide an associated label - the FIELDSET
element does not double for a control label. You apparently did this for
visual format reasons - the visual format has good consistency.

Although they take up more space and are less neat visually, checkboxes
can duplicate the function of a multiple selection box and will be
supported over a wider range of technologies, and do not require unusual
keyboard combinations.

Terence de Giere
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