<input type="checkbox"> within <legend>

[Alpha1980]

What I want to do is include a checkbox within my legend tag that will trigger a javascript function to toggle the display of the contained content.

Is this a massive semantic faux-pas that I should steer clear of?

There's no reason why I can't place the checkbox within the fieldset instead if necessary.

[AutisticCuckoo]

It's quite valid, and I've done it on a few occasions. Perhaps not a best practice from a usability point of view, but I don't think it's something you need to lose sleep over, either.

[Alpha1980]

It's quite valid, and I've done it on a few occasions. Perhaps not a best practice from a usability point of view, but I don't think it's something you need to lose sleep over, either.

Thanks Tommy.

Would you advise wrapping the legend text in <label> tags too?

e.g.

<legend><input id="chk" name="chk" type="checkbox"><label for="chk">Text</label></legend>

[felgall]

Using the label tag like that identifies clearly that the text is the label for the checkbox.

[JsD2K]

<legend><input id="chk" name="chk" type="checkbox"><label for="chk">Text</label></legend>

Wont validate in an xhtml transitional doctype

[AutisticCuckoo]

Would you advise wrapping the legend text in <label> tags too?

I definitely think you should associate the checkbox with a label, yes. Not only is that of paramount importance for screen reader users; it also offers the significant benefit of increasing the clickable area. I find it really annoying when I have to click the tiny little checkbox square.

Wont validate in an xhtml transitional doctype

No, because XML requires all elements to have closing tags, so you have to use <input/> instead of <input>. But since XHTML is of very limited use for 99.999% of the designer/developer population it doesn't matter. And why in the world would anyone use XHTML Transitional anyway? Transitional DTDs are only meant to be used during a transitional (duh!) phase when you're modernising pre-HTML4 documents.

[Alpha1980]

Thanks guys - all very helpful.