Fwd: revisiting advice in HTML on tables used for layout

If you want to respond please do so on the HTML WG list to avoid
fragmentation.
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Regards

SteveF
HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>
Date: 30 January 2014 09:58
Subject: revisiting advice in HTML on tables used for layout
To: HTMLWG WG <public-html@w3.org>


currently the HTML spec says:

"Tables should not be used as layout aids. Historically, many Web authors
have tables in HTML as a way to control their page layout making it
difficult to extract tabular data from such documents. In particular, users
of accessibility tools, like screen readers, are likely to find it very
difficult to navigate pages with tables used for layout. If a table is to
be used for layout it must be marked with the attribute role="presentation"
for a user agent to properly represent the table to an assistive technology
and to properly convey the intent of the author to tools that wish to
extract tabular data from the document.

Note:There are a variety of alternatives to using HTML tables for layout,
primarily using CSS positioning and the CSS table model. [CSS]"

http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/tabular-data.html#the-table-element

Note the normative SHOULD NOT in the first sentence.

The spec text above is based on a decision by the HTML WG [1]

I am not proposing to change the normative aspect of the decision, but
would like to expand and strengthen the informative text to make it clearer
that the use of layout tables is NOT RECOMMENDED and provide fuller
explanations of the negative consequences of layout tables.

[1]http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2011Mar/0245.html

what do others think?

--

Regards

SteveF
HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/>