Using the HTML 'label' tag with radio buttons

Posted by GlenPeterson on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by GlenPeterson
Published on 2012-11-07T16:20:34Z Indexed on 2012/11/07 17:00 UTC
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Does the label tag work with radio buttons? If so, how do you use it? I have a form that displays like this:

First Name: (text field)
Hair Color: (color drop-down)
Description: (text area)
Salutation: (radio buttons for Mr., Mrs., Miss)

I'd like to use the label tag for each label in the left column to define its connection to the appropriate control in the right column. But If I use a radio button, the spec seems to indicate that suddenly the actual "Salutation" label for the form control no longer belongs in the label tag, but rather the options "Mr., Mrs., etc." go in the label tag.

I've always been a fan of accessibility and the semantic web, but this design doesn't make sense to me. The label tag explicitly declares labels. The option tag selection options. How do you declare a label on the actual label for a set of radio buttons?

UPDATE: Here is an example with code:

<tr><th><label for"sc">Status:</label></th>
    <td>&#160;</td>
    <td><select name="statusCode" id="sc">
            <option value="ON_TIME">On Time</option>
            <option value="LATE">Late</option>
        </select></td></tr>

This works great. But unlike other form controls, radio buttons have a separate field for each value:

<tr><th align="right"><label for="???">Activity:</label></th>
    <td>&#160;</td>
    <td align="left"><input type="radio" name="es" value="" id="es0" /> Active &#160;
        <input type="radio" name="es" value="ON_TIME" checked="checked" id="es1" /> Completed on Time &#160;
        <input type="radio" name="es" value="LATE" id="es2" /> Completed Late &#160;
        <input type="radio" name="es" value="CANCELED" id="es3" /> Canceled</td>
</tr>

What to do?

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