Re: Use and abuse of @summary

Steven Faulkner wrote:
> After last weeks html working group teleconference I undertook a small study
> myself: summary attribute usage data (
> http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/misc/summary.html)

Interestingly, you used the summary attribute on the table in that page:

summary="In the majority of cases summary is used on data tables and 
used correctly"

However, that contains information that would have been useful to me as 
a sighted user too, but which I would have missed if I hadn't looked at 
the source.

It also doesn't seem to fit the description in WCAG2 about how to use 
the summary attribute:

"... to provide a brief overview of how data has been organized into a
  table or a brief explanation of how to navigate the table."

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H73.html

So, ironically, I would consider this table itself to be an example of 
incorrect use of the summary attribute.

-- 
Lachlan Hunt - Opera Software
http://lachy.id.au/
http://www.opera.com/

Received on Monday, 23 February 2009 11:33:36 UTC