Re: operational concept for table browsing

I wish to thank Al for clarifying his concept of "keys", thereby
confirming my initial understanding of his intention. The main question
which emerges from this discussion is whether "key" relationships, namely
semantic dependencies as between data cells, need to be explicitly
indicated in order to generate a fully satisfying audio rendering. Can one
think of cases in which such semantic content would facilitate the reading
of the table? One possibility is that it could influence the reading
order, since obviously a cell on which related data depend must be read
prior to the latter; but such a relationship is normally indicated
visually by the fact that the dependent data appear in columns that are
located to the right of the column on which they rely. For example, the
data referring to each senator are placed in the second and subsequent
columns of the sample table mentioned in the HTML draft, with the
senator's name, to which later columns refer, appearing in the first
column. Now a straightforward reading of the data across the rows would
adequately convey such a relationship, which can readily be inferred by
the listener from the meaning of the text.

Thus, there is a need for examples of circumstances in which the encoding
of "keys" relationships would make a significant difference to the
comprehensibility of the audio rendering.

Received on Wednesday, 8 October 1997 19:46:13 UTC