Re: <table summary> and <td headers> (was: Re: <font> (was Support Existing Content))

On Wed, 02 May 2007 15:03:01 +0200, Anne van Kesteren <annevk@opera.com> wrote:

>
> On Wed, 02 May 2007 14:59:46 +0200, Ray Dickman <rdickman@ramius.net>
> wrote:
>>> Indeed. At least summary= is often abused by authors: "Table used for
>>> layout", "Grid of 3 by 2 cells", etc. Given how determining cell headers
>>> is defined I wonder about use cases for headers=.
>>
>> In the case of complex data tables (where there may be headings that span
>> multiple sub-headings for example), people can use the headers attribute
>> to link that data to a <th>'s id value.  Basically, in a table that isn't
>> simple enough to just use scope, associating data to headings using
>> headers and ids is very useful.
>
> I'm aware how headers= works. I don't think your use case is one where it
> is needed though. Could you give a concrete example (maybe even in code)?

If you are using a screen reader to explore a table, finding relevant headers via the headers attribute has been an important use case for some time (as in, years). Unfortunately the more powerful and less code-heavy approaches such as the use of scope and axis attributes have not had nearly the same level of implementation, so in practical terms this attribute is important to accesibility (as in "don't break the web").

cheers

Chaals

-- 
  Charles McCathieNevile, Opera Software: Standards Group
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Received on Wednesday, 2 May 2007 16:25:03 UTC