Re: ACTION-128: Draft @summary voting text in conjunction with PF

Hi Ian,

I will respond shortly with draft text for my action item.

> [...] what would you think of the following?:
> 
>    What do you think HTML5 should say about making complex data tables 
>    more accessible?
> 
>     ( ) HTML5 should encourage authors to use the summary="" attribute 
>         that was introduced in HTML4.
> 
>     ( ) The text currently in the HTML5 spec is fine.
>         http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/tabular-data.html#table-descriptions
> 
>     ( ) Something else, described below.
> 
>    If you said "something else", please describe it here: [_____]
> 

On first glance, I think the current wording or more explicitly the
example shown in the HTML spec isn't great. The <caption> and or
<legend>  elements have descriptions like the following: [1]

1) For prose surrounding the table:
<p>In the following table, characteristics are given in the second
column, with the negative side in the left column and the positive
side in the right column.</p>

2)  <caption>
  <strong>Characteristics with positive and negative sides.</strong>
  <p>Characteristics are given in the second column, with the
  negative side in the left column and the positive side in the right
  column.</p>
 </caption>

3) Using <details>
<caption>
  <strong>Characteristics with positive and negative sides.</strong>
  <details>
   <legend>Help</legend>
   <p>Characteristics are given in the second column, with the
   negative side in the left column and the positive side in the right
   column.</p>
  </details>

Without trying to obfuscate the issue I don't know therefore if they are
the best examples of the use of either <caption> or <figure>. On
reflection about it I think its just the example/verbiage itself. The text:

>"Characteristics are given in the second column, with the negative side
in the left column and the positive side in the right column"

is a little difficult to parse, in particular because the example itself
it rather straightforward though a little unusual. It may be better to
just simplify the example altogether by displaying the characteristic on
the far left column, and then follow with the negative/positive columns.
The text could then be:

" The first column shows a certain characteristic, while the following
columns show firstly negative and then positive aspects".

The fact that the central characteristic of the table, is itself is in
the middle to me  makes the example unusual and possibly unsuitable but
maybe that is by design to illustrate something that I am missing?

Regarding @summary, the current table example is just too simple, there
is a need for a more complex
table in the spec to properly illustrate the use of @summary, something
like Gez's complex table example may be a better example. [1]

Cheers

Josh

[1]
http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/tabular-data.html#table-descriptions
[2] http://juicystudio.com/wcag/tables/complexdatatable.html

Received on Monday, 6 July 2009 11:04:35 UTC