Re: Table Captions and Summaries

On 14 Jan, B.K. DeLong wrote:

> have both. When there is no caption, there is a summary. However with
> both a caption and table summary, it's getting redundant since we
> specifically word the caption to explain exactly what's in the table.

  I think you need to look at what "caption" and "summary" really mean.
  The caption is a title, or a brief explanation - let's call it
  something said about the table's purpose.

  On the other hand, the summary can be described as a brief statement
  of the main points of the contents in the table.

  The two should, in my view, both be present, not overlap, and
  certainly describe different sides to the table and the data.
  


> How do screenreaders handle this?

  I don't think that is particulary interesting. As content providers we
  need to structure up information for what it is, and expect the tools
  used to handle them in the same way. As long as we, and they (being
  tool authors) agree on what a certain structure mean, it isn't really
  neccessary for us to know exactly how the tool deals with said
  structure.

  After all, if the tool doesn't know a certain structure and the
  predefined semantics of it, then it can't handle it at all. If it does
  know, then it'll deal with the information in a way that fits the
  reality that tool exist in.

-- 
 -    Tina Holmboe                    Greytower Technologies
   tina@greytower.net                http://www.greytower.net/
   [+46] 0708 557 905

Received on Friday, 14 January 2005 15:29:50 UTC