[thelist] accessible way to indicate that a form field is required
Max Schwanekamp
lists at neptunewebworks.com
Fri Nov 17 11:00:13 CST 2006
Julian Rickards wrote:
> What are you going to do with class="required"? Color the text red? Add a
> yellow star background image? Use the CSS definition -> content: "This field
> is required";? Use JavaScript to make the text flash? All of these are good
> until someone comes along with a browser that doesn't support either CSS or
> JS (or has them disabled).
>
Very interesting discussion. Another thought I've had (but not
implemented) is using the title attribute on the input element.
According to one article[0], and corroborated by another[1], this works
for the more common screen readers, and would have no negative effect
elsewhere. However I'm leaning toward putting in a span with text
"required" and then putting it off-left (position: absolute; left:
-9999em) with CSS, and styling the label with a bold font for visual
users. Though this will probably require slightly more maintenance.
[0] http://www.sf.id.au/WE05/forms.html
[1] http://juicystudio.com/article/invisible-form-prompts.php
--
Max Schwanekamp
NeptuneWebworks.com
541-517-9064
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