Re: Use and abuse of @summary

HI Simon,

On Feb 18, 2009, at 8:16 AM, Simon Pieters wrote:

> On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:20:32 +0100, Steven Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com 
> > wrote:
>
>> On digging into philips data a little bit and measuring its effect  
>> upon
>> users who's screen reading software provides access to the  
>> information it is
>> found that in the overwhelming majority of cases the incorrect uses  
>> of
>> @summary are not announced to screan reader users. Why? Because  
>> screen
>> reading software (JAWS and Window eyes) that supports @summary also  
>> uses
>> heuristics to suppress the announcement of layout tables to users
>
> I think it would be useful to specify an algorithm for deciding  
> whether a table is a layout table or not -- not just for deciding  
> whether or not to use summary='' but also e.g. for deciding whether  
> <td> should be a sectioning root or not.

I agree. I think it might also be useful to specify an attribute to  
allow authors to indicate a layout table as well (which could then be  
incorporated into the algorithm).

Take care,
Rob