- From: Joshue O Connor <joshue.oconnor@cfit.ie>
- Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:03:49 +0100
- To: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
- Cc: public-html@w3.org, wai-xtech@w3.org
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 11:04:37 UTC