Effective Label Test

Text Inputs

Example 1: Label

Label:

Example 2: Title

Label:

Example 3: Label + Title

Label:

Example 4: Label + Empty Title

Label:

Image Inputs

Example 5: Alt

Example 6: Title

Example 7: Alt+ Title

Example 8: Alt + Empty Title

Button Inputs

Example 9: Value

Example 10: Value + Title

Example 11: Value + Empty Title

Button Elements

Example 12: Content

Content

Example 13: Content + Title

Content

Example 14: Content + Empty Title

Content

Example 15: Content + Invisible Text

<button id="button7"><span class="invisible">invisible text </span>Content</button>
.invisible { position: absolute; left: -10000px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; }
invisible text Content

Results

Example	JAWS 10.0.1167	JAWS 11.0.1430 "Use Title"	JAWS 11.0.1430 "Use Screen Text" (default)	NVDA 2010.1 (tabbing)
1	label	label	label	label edit
2	title	title	title	title edit
3	label	label	label	label edit title
4	label	label	label	label edit
5	alt	alt	alt	alt button
6	title	title	title	title button
7	title	title	title	title button
8	alt	alt	alt	button
9	value	value	value	value button
10	title	title	value	title button
11	value	value	value	button
12	content	content	content	content button
13	title	title	content	title button
14	content	content	content	button
15	invisible text content	invisible text content	invisible text content	invisible text content

In general, the formula to determine the effective label for a button appears to be:

Effective Label = [Legend] + [(Label) | Title | Alt | Content | Value]

Noting that the default setting/behavior for JAWS 11 has been changed to "Use Screen Text", which reads the text showing on the face of the button regardless of the other attributes. Setting JAWS 11 to "Use Title" for buttons with revert to the previous (and probably preferable) behavior.

Note that with NVDA the presence of an empty title attribute on any kind of button causes NVDA not to read the alt, content, or value.