Web accessibility: "Place-holding text in form elements"

"Checkpoint 10.4 (priority 3) in the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 states:

"Until user agents handle empty controls correctly, include default, place-holding characters in edit boxes and text areas."

This is one of those checkpoints which was always intended as an interim solution to a problem that existed at the time the WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 were written. As far as I know, empty form controls no longer cause problems for user agents (such as browsers or screen readers), so there is no longer any particular requirement to provide place-holding characters.

In fact, they can actually cause problems for some users because of how some browsers and screen readers interact when handling place-holder text."

Read the full article in RNIB's Web Access Centre.

Technorati subject tags: Accessibility, Web Accessibility, Web Standards