Re: Table Techniques - Summary

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John M Slatin" <john_slatin@austin.utexas.edu>
To: "Matt May" <mcmay@w3.org>; "Chris Ridpath" <chris.ridpath@utoronto.ca>
Cc: "WAI WCAG List" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 9:43 PM
Subject: RE: Table Techniques - Summary


>
> I agree that null summary (summary="") should be allowed for layout
> tables.  As Matt points out, this indicates a postive intention on the
> author's part to force screen reader behavior, just as the null alt
> attribute for images does.  Use of the <th> element is *another* good
> indicator of the author's intent, in this case to create a data table
> rather than a layout table.
>
> By contrast, the absence of a summary attribute, like the absence of an
> alt attribute, may simply indicate ignorance or indifference on the
> author's part.

I could understand and agree with John but the HTML reference [1] referring
to "summary" explain that:

"This attribute provides a summary of the table's purpose and structure for
user agents rendering to non-visual media such as speech and Braille."

"summary" is different from the ALT attribute [2] that must be specified for
the IMG and AREA elements.

So, if there is no text that presents the table's purpose and structure, why
use the attribute?

Roberto Scano
---
[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/tables.html#adef-summary
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/objects.html#adef-alt

Received on Thursday, 14 August 2003 16:56:51 UTC