FW: Your comments on HTML technique for tabular information

>From Andi 



"Good design is accessible design." 
John Slatin, Ph.D.
Director, Accessibility Institute
University of Texas at Austin
FAC 248C
1 University Station G9600
Austin, TX 78712
ph 512-495-4288, f 512-495-4524
email jslatin@mail.utexas.edu
web http://www.utexas.edu/research/accessibility/


 


-----Original Message-----
From: Andi Snow-Weaver [mailto:andisnow@us.ibm.com] 
Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2006 7:00 pm
To: John M Slatin
Subject: Re: Your comments on HTML technique for tabular information

Hi John,

I think this is a great approach.

Andi
andisnow@us.ibm.com
IBM Accessibility Center
(512) 838-9903, http://www.ibm.com/able
Internal Tie Line 678-9903, http://w3.austin.ibm.com/~snsinfo


 

             "John M Slatin"

             <john_slatin@aust

             in.utexas.edu>
To 
                                       Andi Snow-Weaver/Austin/IBM@IBMUS

             02/15/2006 04:36
cc 
             PM

 
Subject 
                                       Your comments on HTML technique
for 
                                       tabular information

 

 

 

 

 

 





Hi, Andi.

In your comments on the HTML technique "Using table, tr, and td to
present tabular information" you agreed with Michael's suggestion about
including an ASCII table as a "counter-example" to show what happens
when tabular information is not marked up correctly. You also agreed
with Sofia's suggestion to add the scope attribute to the <th> elements
identifying column and row headers.

This technique has been revised. It has been combined with the technique
on using the th element (which no longer exists as an independent
technique), and it has been retitled:

"Using table markup to present tabular information." The updated
technique is available at:
http://trace.wisc.edu/wcag_wiki/index.php?title=Using_table_markup_to_pr
esent_tabular_information

After carefully reviewing the HTML specification, we decided not to add
the scope attribute to the th elements in Example 1. The scope attribute
is not required by the HTML 4.01 specification. Screen readers can
correctly identify column and row headers in simple data tables when
only the <th> element is present, and the HTML 4.01 specification
describes an algorithm that user agents can use in finding heading
information in the absence of scope and headers attributes.

Instead of using the scope attribute in this technique, a new HTML
technique has been added: "Using the scope attribute to associate header
cells and data cells in data tables," available at
http://trace.wisc.edu/wcag_wiki/index.php?title=Using_the_scope_attribut
e_to_associate_header_cells_and_data_cells_in_data_tables

We eexperimented with an example of an ASCII table, but finally decided
against using it because (1) it was confusing and (b) it was not
consistent with other techniques documents, which try to show correct
techniques.

We did add a new Failure due to using the HTML pre element to mark up
tabular information.

Please review the new and revised techniques and let me know if they
address your concerns.

Thanks so much!
John
"Good design is accessible design."
John Slatin, Ph.D.
Director, Accessibility Institute
University of Texas at Austin
FAC 248C
1 University Station G9600
Austin, TX 78712
ph 512-495-4288, f 512-495-4524
email jslatin@mail.utexas.edu
web http://www.utexas.edu/research/accessibility/

Received on Monday, 27 February 2006 14:45:01 UTC