RE: Technique 5.5.2 - Check TABLE elements for valid CAPTION element

I agree with the CAPTION element being only used for tabular data. But, the
SUMMARY attribute should not be REQUIRED on EVERY table.  It is useful when
the browser (i.e. Home Page Reader) tells the users that the summary of the
table when the users ask for more information, such as "Where am I", and
the browser responds with table x of y and then reads the summary.  If the
author put the summary information in a table used for a navigation bar, it
would be useful, but I'm not sure it even makes a P3.  I think is
equivalent to the TITLE attribute


Regards,
Phill Jenkins
IBM Accessibility Center - Special Needs Systems
http://www.ibm.com/able





>What we decided for Bobby, in our interpretation of the guidelines, was
that
>a SUMMARY attribute would be always required but a CAPTION element would
>only be required if the table is a data table. I agree a CAPTION is
>intrusive for layout tables and we shouldn't require it, but it's very
>helpful for data tables. And summary, being invisible, doesn't hurt to
have
>in all tables. Michael


-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-er-ig-request@w3.org
[mailto:w3c-wai-er-ig-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of Chris Ridpath
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 11:36 AM
To: WAI ER IG List
Subject: Technique 5.5.2 - Check TABLE elements for valid CAPTION
element


I think we should remove this technique because we already have a
requirement (technique 5.5.1) that the user enter a table summary. This
technique is redundant.

Table captions are rendered by the current Netscape and IE5 above the table
and this can be distracting, especially for layout tables. The table
summary
is not rendered by these browsers.

If we do leave this technique in then it should be moved down to priority 3
from priority 2.

Chris

Received on Tuesday, 5 September 2000 13:22:44 UTC