Associate form help text with form #485
Conversation
Most groups of checkboxes and radio buttons within Elements have an additional introductory help text which isn't a hint. It's usually there to help less technical people understand that you can select multiple checkboxes, but can also be used for other purposes. This associates that text with the form via `aria-describedby` to make it more accessible to assistive technologies like screen readers.
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@selfthinker which of these solutions, #484 or #485 is your preferred choice? |
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We have a section on fieldsets and legends. The guidance for moving this help text into the legend, or using |
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I'd prefer solution #484. As Richard Morton keeps on saying: "The first rule of ARIA is: Don't use ARIA." Let me know if the "hack" in #484 is okay with you, then I can add the documentation to it. Otherwise I will add it in here instead. |
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Let's go with #484. Fine to include the "hack" since it'll make the spacing underneath hint text consistent. Thanks Anika. |
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Closing in favour of #484. |
This is an alternative solution to #484.
What problem does the pull request solve?
Most groups of checkboxes and radio buttons within Elements have an additional introductory help text which isn't a hint. It's usually there to help less technical people understand that you can select multiple checkboxes, but can also be used for other purposes.
This associates that text with the form via
aria-describedbyto make it more accessible to assistive technologies like screen readers. Ideally this should be put into the legend instead, but that proves to be difficult (see #484).How has this been tested?
I tested in the most used screen reader and browser combination: VoiceOver in Safari on macOS, JAWS in IE 11 on Windows 10 and NVDA in Firefox on Windows 10. They don't necessarily say the help text under all circumstances but always under some circumstances (e.g. when down-arrowing vs tabbing).
What type of change is it?
Has the documentation been updated?
I'm not quite sure if this needs to be documented or not. We don't officially have the concept of a "form help text". (That's the name I gave it, that might need improving.) But I am aware of forms in the wild which use something similar. Where would a documentation fit? Maybe under "hint text" as that is related.