See Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria for important information about the usage of these informative techniques and how they relate to the normative WCAG 2.0 success criteria. The Applicability section explains the scope of the technique, and the presence of techniques for a specific technology does not imply that the technology can be used in all situations to create content that meets WCAG 2.0.
HTML form controls and links
This technique relates to:
The objective of this technique is to use standard HTML form controls and link elements to provide keyboard operation and assistive technology interoperability of interactive user interface elements.
User agents provide the keyboard operation of HTML form controls and links. In addition, the user agent maps the form controls and links to an accessibility API. Assistive technologies use the accessibility API to extract appropriate accessibility information, such as role, name, state, and value, and present them to users. The role is provided by the HTML element, and the name is provided by the text associated with that element. Elements for which values and states are appropriate also expose the values and states via multiple mechanisms.
In some cases, the text is already associated with the control through a required attribute. For example, submit buttons use the button
element text or image 'alt
' attribute as the name. In the case of form controls, label
elements or 'title
' attributes are used. The following table describes how the role, name, value, and state are determined for HTML links and form controls.
HTML element | Role | Name | Value | State |
---|---|---|---|---|
<a> | link | 'title' attribute, text within <a> element or 'alt' attribute if image link. Concatenated if both text and image 'alt' attribute are provided | 'href' attribute | |
<button> | push button | text inside <button> element or 'title' attribute | ||
<fieldset> | grouping | text inside <legend> element within fieldset element | ||
<input type = "button", "submit", or "reset"> | push button | 'value' attribute | ||
<input type = "image"> | push button | 'alt' attribute or 'title' attribute | ||
<input type = "text"> | editable text | <label> element associated with it or 'title' attribute | 'value' attribute | |
<input type = "password"> | editable text | <label> element associated with it or 'title' attribute | value is purposefully hidden | |
<input type="file"> | editable text | <label> element associated with it or 'title' attribute | 'value' attribute | |
<input type="checkbox"> | checkbox | <label> element associated with it or 'title' attribute | 'checked' attribute | |
<input type="radio"> | radio button | <label> element associated with it or 'title' attribute | 'checked' attribute | |
<select> | list box | <label> element associated with it or 'title' attribute | <option> element with 'selected' attribute set to "selected" | |
<textarea> | editable text | <label> element associated with it or 'title' attribute | text within <textarea> element |
User agents provide mechanisms to navigate to and select links. In each of the following examples, the role is "link" from the <a href>. Note that <a name> does not provide a role of "link". The value is the URI in the 'href' attribute.
In example 1a, the name is the text inside the link, in this case "Example Site".
Example Code:
<a href="www.example.com">Example Site</a>
In example 1b of an image inside a link, the 'alt' attribute for the image provides the name. Some tools for viewing APIs, such as Microsoft Inspect Objects, will not surface this, but AT does.
Example Code:
<a href="www.example.com"><img src="example_logo.gif" alt="Example"></a>
In example 1c, some assistive technology will not automatically insert a space character when concatenating the image's alt text and the text of the link. If the text should not be concatenated without a space, it is safest to insert a space between the image and the adjacent word so that words will not run together.
Example Code:
<a href="www.example.com"><img src="example_logo.gif" alt="Example"> Text</a>
There are several ways to create a button in HTML, and they all map to the "push button" role.
In example 2a, the text is contained in the button
element, in this case "save", as the name. There is no value.
Example Code:
<button>Save</button>
Example 2b uses the 'value' attribute, in this case "Save", "Submit", or "Reset" as the name.
Example Code:
<input type="button" value="Save" />
<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
<input type="reset" value="Reset" />
Example 2c uses the 'alt' attribute, in this case "save", as the name.
Example Code:
<input type="image" src="save.gif" alt="save" />
In example 2d, there is no 'alt' attribute so the 'title' attribute, in this case "save", is used as the name.
Example Code:
<input type="image" src="save.gif" title="save" />
Example 2e clarifies how the user agent determines the name if the author specifies both the 'alt' and 'title' attributes of the input element. In this case, the user agent uses the 'alt' attribute ("Save") and ignores the 'title' attribute.
Example Code:
<input type="image" src="save.gif" alt="save" title="save the file" />
In example 3a, the input field has a role of "editable text". The label
element is associated to the input
element via the 'for' attribute which references the 'id' attribute of the input
> element. The name comes from the label
element, in this case, "Type of fruit". Its value comes from its value attribute, in this case "bananas".
Example Code:
<label for="text_1">Type of fruit</label>
<input id="text_1" type="text" value="bananas">
In example 3b, the input field has the same role as example 3a, but the value is the empty string and the field gets its name from the 'title' attribute.
Example Code:
<input id="text_1" type="text" title="Type of fruit">
Example 4 has a role of "checkbox", from the 'type' attribute of the input
element. The label
element is associated with the input
element via the 'for' attribute which refers to the 'id' attribute of the input
element. The name comes from the label
element, in this case "cheese". Its state can be "checked" or "unchecked" and comes from the 'checked' attribute. The state can be changed by the user's interaction with the control.
Example Code:
<label for="cb_1">Cheese</label>
<input id="cb_1" type="checkbox" checked="checked">
Example 5 has a role of "radio button" from the 'type' attribute on the input
element. Its name comes from the label
element. The state can be "checked" or "unchecked" and comes from the 'checked' attribute. The state can be changed by the user.
Example Code:
<input type="radio" name="color" id="r1" checked="checked"/><label for="r1">Red</label>
<input type="radio" name="color" id="r2" /><label for="r2">Blue</label>
<input type="radio" name="color" id="r3" /><label for="r3">Green</label>
Example 6a has a role of "list box" from the select
element. Its name is "Numbers" from the label
element. Forgetting to give a name to the select is a common error. The value is the option
element that has the 'selected' attribute present (with a value of "selected" in XHTML). In this case, the default value is "Two".
Example Code:
<label for="s1">Numbers</label>
<select id="s1" size="1">
<option>One</option>
<option selected="selected">Two</option>
<option>Three</option>
</select>
Example 6b has the same name, role, and value as the above, but sets the name with the 'title' attribute on the select
element. This technique can be used when a visible label is not desirable.
Example Code:
<select id="s1" title="Numbers" size="1">
<option>One</option>
<option selected="selected">Two</option>
<option>Three</option>
</select>
Example 7a has a role of "editable text" from the textarea
element. The name is "Type your speech here" from the label
element. The value is the content inside the textarea
element, in this case "Four score and seven years ago".
Example Code:
<label for="ta_1">Type your speech here</label>
<textarea id="ta_1" >Four score and seven years ago</textarea>
Example 7b has the same role, the name is set using the 'title' attribute, and the value is the empty string.
Example Code:
<textarea id="ta_1" title="Type your speech here" >Four score and seven years ago</textarea>
The radio fieldset in example 8 has a role of "grouping". The name comes from the legend
element.
Example Code:
<fieldset>
<legend>Choose a Color:</legend>
<input id="red" type="radio" name="color" value="red" /><label for="red">Red</label><br />
<input id="blue" type="radio" name="color" value="blue" /><label for="blue">Blue</label><br />
<input id="green" type="radio" name="color" value="green" /><label for="green">Green</label>
</fieldset>
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Inspect the HTML source code.
For each instance of links and form elements, check that the name, value, and state are specified as indicated in the table above.
Check #2 is true.
If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.