Re: Reflow: Two details

HI Wayne,

There is a difference between “cannot use” and “has to scroll”.

Take a picture as an example, not something that can be reflowed technically or practically. You can either fit the whole thing to the viewport (and not make out the details); or, you can zoom in (with scrolling) to make out the details, a bit at a time.

For 2.1 we can’t change the SC text now, but the way forward in future would be to identify a practical means of over-coming the problem.

Some tables can be reflowed practically, and I think we should have an advisory technique for that. However, some of our clients provide huge tables they can’t break down in practice, such as a house’s energy usage. (3 layers of headers, ~13 columns & ~30 rows!)

Slightly separately, I agree that the content within table cells should reflow, and generally it will. If you use stylish, and rule like this should enforce it for sites that used pixel/em widths on the table (instead of letting it resize):

td, th {
   max-width: 100% !important;
}

Cheers,

-Alastair

From: Wayne Dick <wayneedick@gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, 8 February 2018 at 22:51
To: LVTF - low-vision-a11y <public-low-vision-a11y-tf@w3.org>
Subject: Reflow: Two details
Resent-From: LVTF - low-vision-a11y <public-low-vision-a11y-tf@w3.org>
Resent-Date: Thursday, 8 February 2018 at 22:50

"Except for parts of the content which require two-dimensional layout for usage or meaning."

1. Here is my question: If a piece of data requires a two dimensional layout for usage or meaning how is a person who requires 400% enlargement going to use or understand that data? That is we acknowledge that a piece if IT cannot be used and/or understood without a two dimensional visual gestalt. How is a person who cannot perceive that gestalt in one piece going to use or understand it?

It seems to me that we have identified a situation that requires some kind of alternative presentation unless we are just saying people who need 400% enlargement can't use this stuff.

2. I think that all text within the cells of data tables should reflow. The table may be wider than the viewport, but the columns should word wrap.

Wayne