RE: TABLES - To label or not to label

Another category of "simple table" is tables with only a single cell each.
Such tables are frequently used for purely formatting purposes and aids
should have no problem working with them, by ignoring the fact that they are
tables and only looking at standard attributes such as coloration, title=,
etc.

	----------
	From:  Daniel Dardailler[SMTP:danield@w3.org]
	Sent:  Wednesday, March 04, 1998 5:36 AM
	To:  w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
	Cc:  dsr@w3.org
	Subject:  Re: TABLES - To label or not to label 


	> Question 1: Should a guideline state that labeling of simple
tables is not
	> [required]?

	yes 

	> If yes, then:
	> 
	> Question 2: When does a table become complicated enough for
labeling to be
	> [required]?

	This is of course the tough question.

	I talked to Dave Raggett about this issue and I think we both agree
	that there is a threshold below which a table can be considered
	"simple".


	I propose the following:

	   - if it only has a single row of header cells at the top
	    and/or
	   - if it only has a single column of header cells on the left side
	     (modulo right-to-left directionality)

	In these two cases (which should be treated together), given a cell,
	it is really easy for an agent to find the column and the row header
	they belong to without requiring the author to add more markup.

	In other words, there is a potential "default" value for the scope
	attribute on TH that can be defined as: 
	   - if all the cells in a row (TR) are header (TH), 
	         then scope defaults to col 
	   - if only the first cell in a row (TR) is a header (TH)
	         then scope defaults to row

	We might go as far as trying to define default values for rowgroup
and
	colgroup cases (covering sub-headers) but I'd be happy with just
that
	in the guidelines.

	> Note 2: labeling refers to the new TABLE markup available in HTML
4.0 such
	> as header, id, scope, and summary

	summary and abbrev should be RECOMMENDED regardless of the above,
they
	do no serve navigation but description.

Received on Wednesday, 4 March 1998 21:24:42 UTC