Re: Failure to choose appropriate table row and column headings

On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 4:09 PM, <noreply@w3.org> wrote:

>
> Name: Charles Belov
> Email: charles.belov@sfmta.com
> Affiliation: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
> Document: UW
> Item Number: Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.1
> Part of Item: Intent
> Comment Type: technical
> Summary of Issue: Failure to choose appropriate table row and column
> headings
> Comment (Including rationale for any proposed change):
> It is not enough that table rows and columns have headings.  A heading
> must actually be appropriate to the row or column it appears in and allow
> distinguishing between that row or column and adjacent rows or columns.
>
> Proposed Change:
> Link to new failure, Failure to choose appropriate table row and column
> headings.
>
> Description
>
> This document describes a failure caused by use of table column- or
> row-heading content that insuffiently describes or fails to distinguish the
> column or row.
>
> Examples:
>
> 1. Three consecutive rows have a row header (same row, first column)
> containing the same content.  Either the wrong topic was chosen for column
> 1, or column 1 and another column need to be combined into a single column
> to produce a unique heading.
>
> 2. Column 1 contains a rowspan attribute and this table does not have
> scope, id and headers attributes to identify additional headings.
>
> 3. Row 1 contains a colspan attribute and this table does not have scope,
> id and headers attributes to identify additional headings.
>
> ================================
Response from the Working Group
================================
We are adding several new failures related to insufficient use of table
mark-up to reflect the structure of a table. However, if the table markup
has been used correctly, there is not a success criterion that requires
that headings be appropriate, nor is is clear how to evaluate what it means
to be appropriate. The closest such success criteria would be SC 2.4.6:
Headings and labels describe topic or purpose.

Loretta Guarino Reid, WCAG WG Co-Chair
Gregg Vanderheiden, WCAG WG Co-Chair
Michael Cooper, WCAG WG Staff Contact


On behalf of the WCAG Working Group