Saturday 18 August 2012

Making Web Page Forms Accessible

For a web designer, making a website accessible to all is the hardest challenge. This is because constituents of the target audience may have visual and aural difficulties. A web page has different parts. Each part should individually be accessible. This is especially true for an e-commerce website. For this kind of website, commercial success is critical.

The most common element among web pages is the use of forms. The problem is that forms are almost inaccessible for users who have disabilities. It is possible to circumvent the problem by conducting a few activities. It is possible to increase the accessibility of forms. To do this, use the <LABEL> element to specify labels for each field in a form.

An experienced web designer improves the accessibility of the Tab Order by using the TABINDEX attribute in form fields. This will determine the order of the fields that a user is given as they move through a form when the TAB key is pressed.

To a sensible web designer, the use of frames should best be avoided. This thumb rule, however, can be violated if the usability of your website may increase hugely if the frames are used. For the section of the target audience, who is disabled, it is essential to provide meaningful frame titles. This is useful for disabled individuals who are compelled to use assistive technology. A meaningful frame title will enable the disabled user to easily identify the frame he or she wants to open. To do this, you must include meaningful titles on the source page for each frame by using the TITLE element. Alternatively, you could assign a meaningful TITLE and NAME attribute for each FRAME element on the FRAMESET web page. If you want to create an accessible frame source, the source of the FRAME element must be an HTML file.

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