- From: Gregory J. Rosmaita <oedipus@hicom.net>
- Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:24:40 -0400
- To: Lachlan Hunt <lachlan.hunt@lachy.id.au>, public-html@w3.org
Lachlan Hunt wrote, quote: > No, even if the summary attribute were added to HTML5, it > certainly shouldn't be required. unquote why not? CAPTION is akin to ALT text - it provides a terse description of the object that cannot be visually perceived; the summary attribute itself serves the same purpose as LONGDESC (which provides a detailed description, orientational material, etc.) with all due respect to the self-styled quote WCAG Samurai unquote, the quote you included in your response is ridiculous in the extreme... it is a criticism of implementation, not of a basic underlying principle of W3C Technical Recommendations -- that equal access to page elements be provided to any user regardless of that user's circumstances... there is absolutely NO reason why a user agent or an assistive technology couldn't yank the contents of a summary attribute for a table and reuse that metadata in whatever way the developer chooses, but if there's nothing to yank, then NO ONE has access to the metadata... so, rather than go round and round in circles, here is a formal proposal (wiki page to follow): PROPOSED: Summary should be: (a) retained, and (b) be a REQUIRED attribute for the TABLE element. The meta-data contained in the summary element should be reused by user agents or assisstive technologies to provide a visual slash renderable version of the meta-data provided by the summary attribute. gregory. PS: if ANY element should be deprecated as a visual construct and relegated to CSS it is TABLE, for TABLE has meaning only inasmuch as one is able to visually perceive the spatial relationships between data and its classification. just because data is presented in tabular form, does NOT mean that it cannot be presented in myriad other forms, for the table is merely a VISUAL expression of data set relationships; the underlying data and bindings are the same no matter how presented. now THAT is the type of issue which the WCAG Samurai SHOULD be addressing. ---------------------------------------------------------------- CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others. -- Ambrose Bierce, _The Devil's Dictionary_ ---------------------------------------------------------------- Gregory J. Rosmaita, oedipus@hicom.net Camera Obscura: http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/index.html ----------------------------------------------------------------
Received on Monday, 18 June 2007 17:25:26 UTC