HTML, XHTML form controls that are not identified using value, alt, or element content
This technique relates to:
User agents will display a tool tip when the mouse hovers above an input element containing a title attribute.
If no label is available, JAWS and Window-Eyes speak the title attribute when the form control receives focus
JAWS 6.0 and later can be set to speak both label and title when the two items are different; however, very few users are aware of this setting.
WindowEyes 5.5 has a hot key, ins-E, that will display additional information, including the title attribute, for the item with focus.
The objective of this technique is to use the title attribute to label form controls when the visual design cannot accommodate the label (for example, if there is no text on the screen that can be identified as a label) or where it might be confusing to display a label. User agents, including assistive technology, can speak the title attribute.
A search form uses a pulldown menu to limit the scope of the search. The pulldown menu is immediately adjacent to the text field used to enter the search term. The relationship between the search field and the pulldown menu is clear to users who can see the visual design, which does not have room for a visible label. The title attribute is used to identify the select menu. The title attribute can be spoken by screen readers or displayed as a tool tip for people using screen magnifiers.
<label for="searchTerm">Search for:</label> <input id="searchTerm" type="text" size="30" value="" name="searchTerm"> <select title="Search in" id="scope"> … </select>
A Web page contains controls for entering a phone number in the United States, with three fields for area code, exchange, and last four digits.
<fieldset><legend>Phone number</legend> <input id="areaCode" name="areaCode" title="Area Code" type="text" size="3" value="" > <input id="exchange" name="exchange" title="First three digits of phone number" type="text" size="3" value="" > <input id="lastDigits" name="lastDigits" title="Last four digits of phone number" type="text" size="4" value="" > </fieldset>
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HTML 4.01 The title attribute
Identify each form control that is not associated with a label element
Check that the control has a title attribute
Check that the title attribute identifies the purpose of the control
All checks above are true.