Hi all, I've skimmed over a quick search for the topics since early March, looking for topics about forms presented as tables. I only found 3-4 dealing obviously (in their subject lines) with the issue, and none of those threads really hit on the problem I'm currently having. We have what I can only call a complex table. The data has to be entered in the same format it'll be displayed in (customer requirement) - that is, the appearance of the entry form has to look like the output form. Which is *definitely* a complex table. So, I have the two-logical-column-headers problem, and am doing all the right stuff with scope/id+headers, because it's a table. However, I can't put the labels for the entry fields into their table cells, in any way that is obvious to visual users. My understanding of <label> is that it is displayed as text on the screen for visual users, and is supposed to be read as the prompt for a given element. If I'm right about that, then I can't use the label idea, I think. If I could rely on JAWS (in particular) and others to read the row and column headers I would be (almost; it's a very complex form) all set. However, my user who uses JAWS on a daily basis wasn't able to get both - I don't want those users to have to switch between forms mode and regular, table-handling mode. Or whatever they're called. That's obviously Not Good for usability even if you can call it accessible. So, how should I go about doing these? I don't think I can use multiple labels for a single entry field, nor re-use the label for multiple fields, as I'd need to do (each cell would need two labels; each label would have to be used for a minimum of 3, and more usually 5 or 15, cells). Should I use the title attribute for each of those cells? Will JAWS read that properly? Is there another workaround? I'm looking for both 'what's right' - how *should* it be marked up - and 'how does it actually work' - what'll make it work given that markup implementation isn't always as complete. As a completely side issue, I've been told that JAWS doesn't handle <em> and <strong> - is this true? Is there no indication to the JAWS user that those tags are being used? (I haven't noticed either way in my own use of JAWS, but I use it solely for testing, and haven't got the same familiarity with the modes and setup options as might be needed to make it work.) If I haven't described my table problem clearly enough, let me know and I'll try to provide useful clarification. It seems that the major problem is that most forms-in-tables are in tables for layout only, not for data, and thus can be handled thoroughly different from tables-for-data. Thanks for any help, -LeanneReceived on Wednesday, 13 November 2002 23:05:31 UTC
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