How to have one label for multiple select boxes?

Question

I have on this check in form:

<label>Check in date </label>
<select id="day">
  <option value="1">1</option>
  <option value="2">2</option>
  <option value="3">3</option>
  <option value="4">4</option>
</select> 
<select id="month">
  <option value="1">1</option>
  <option value="2">2</option>
  <option value="3">3</option>
  <option value="4">4</option>
</select> 
<select id="year">
  <option value="1">2012</option>
  <option value="2">2013</option>
</select> 

As you can see, the user will choose the month, the day and the year on different select boxes, however, only one label should exist for all three.

What would be the proper way to do this with HTML ?

Update: I'm concerned with the accessibility hit that we may have on developing something like the code above. I mean, a blind user should be able to listen each label in order to fill this form...

Answer 1

The problem with using one label for all three input boxes is that an non-sighted user is not going to know which of three boxes the focus is in because the same text will be read out in each case. There's a number of approaches possible. Maybe the safest is to have a label for each box, but hide those labels off to the left side of the viewport. Another possibility which ought to work, but I haven't tested would be this:

<fieldset>
    <legend>Check in date</legend>
    <select id="day" aria-label="day">
      <option value="1">1</option>
      <option value="2">2</option>
      <option value="3">3</option>
      <option value="4">4</option>
    </select> 
    <select id="month" aria-label="month">
      <option value="1">1</option>
      <option value="2">2</option>
      <option value="3">3</option>
      <option value="4">4</option>
    </select> 
    <select id="year" aria-label="year">
      <option value="1">2012</option>
      <option value="2">2013</option>
    </select>
</fieldset> 

Answer 2

Following with the answer from @Alohci, you can also use aria-labelledby and reverse the naming reference (which I think is a bit closer to the convention you were looking for):

<label id="date">Check in date</label>
<select aria-labelledby="date">
    <!-- ... -->
</select> 
<select aria-labelledby="date">
    <!-- ... -->
</select> 
<select aria-labelledby="date">
    <!-- ... -->
</select>

Also note, as per the W3C on labelled-by:

If the label text is visible on screen, authors SHOULD use aria-labelledby and SHOULD NOT use aria-label. Use aria-label only if the interface is such that it is not possible to have a visible label on the screen. User agents give precedence to aria-labelledby over aria-label when computing the accessible name property.

Answer 3

You cannot associate a label element with more than one control. This is described in the definition of label.

You could give each select element its own label.

A better approach is to have a single text input field for a date. Then there is no problem with label. It means more work, since you have to parse the data server-side, and you should also parse it client-side (for checks, so that the user can immediately be informed of problems). But it is better usability (surely it is faster to type in a date than to use three clumsy dropdowns) and better accessibility. You need to decide on a date format and clearly tell the user what the expected format is.