Problem:

Screen readers pass over edit boxes which are empty. The user has no way of knowing they are there. Even if they know, for example, that there is likely to be an edit box for entering a search query, it is difficult to place the mouse pointer on the edit box without sighted assistance.

Experimental solutions:

1. Put a place holder in the edit box.
   • If this place holder is accidently erased by the user, the I-bar will still be present in that box and the user can find it again.
     

   • Care would have to be taken to make sure the place holder did not interfere with such things as E-mail addresses, search routines, etc. The worse case would be that the user might have to erase the place holder in an E-mail address box. An asterisk might work in a search conditions edit box in that it would simply act as a wild card and allow the user to type in whatever word or phrase they wanted to search for.
     

2. Place the label for the edit box in a prescribed place relative to the box itself, for example, to the left of the box. As long as either there is a place holder in the edit box or the I-bar is present, the user would be able to find the label and then move the mouse pointer 1 space to the left to locate the edit box.
   

3. Alternate strategies could be used to obtain and act on the information normally found in edit boxes.
   • A search routine could be presented in an alphabetic index as well as a key-word search.

   • The user could down-load an address form or simply an E-mail address which could be used to return the requested information.

Please send comments and suggestions to: web-team@trace.wisc.edu