problems with axis attribute?

I have a question about the axis attribute.  Does this attribute work only
with the headers and id method of table markup?

Also, has anyone (who uses homesite) found a problem with some attributes
working when you view the file from homesite in a browser?  The axis
attribute worked well when I opened the file directly. When I viewed the
file from homesite, the attribute did not work with the screen reader.

Any help or ideas is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
J