- From: Jon Gunderson <jongund@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
- Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 09:48:45 -0600
- To: "Gregory J. Rosmaita" <unagi69@concentric.net>, Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org>
- Cc: User Agent Guidelines Emailing List <w3c-wai-ua@w3.org>, Web Content Accessiblity Guidelines Mailing List <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>, Authoring Tools Guidelines List <w3c-wai-au@w3.org>
Gregory, I agree table markup items should be higher priority in WCAG. But I am not sure what that has to do with the DOM. Implementing and exposing the DOM will allow assistive technologies to access table markup information provided by the author. If the author didn't include information on table markup, the DOM cannot magically provide it to an assistive technology or for that matter a graphical rendering in a GUI environment. I am therefore not sure what you mean by "pushing it off on to the DOM"? Jon At 07:22 PM 12/15/99 -0500, Gregory J. Rosmaita wrote: >aloha, ian! > >during the afternoon session of the User Agent Working Group meeting in austin >on 10 december 1999, you assured me that all of the accessibility attributes >and elements contained in HTML4 that are defined for tables are accorded P1 in >WCAG... however, WCAG Checkpoints 5.5 and 5.6 (which deal with the summary >attribute for TABLE and the abbreviation attribute for TD and TH are only >accorded P3... if non-visual access to tabular information (i.e. the ability >to search within a table, a nested table, a column or row; the ability to read >across rows and down columns; the ability to obtain extended contextual >information from a cell in a nested table, etc.) is left to AT interaction with >the DOM and relies upon proper usage of TABLE elements and attributes, then >_all_ of the semantic slash contextual markup defined for tables in HTML4 needs >to be accorded a P1 in WCAG, so that authors provide as much semantic and >contextual information as possible when they create a table... this is the >only way that a user's adaptive technology will be able to use the DOM to >extract semantic information from the TABLE, so as to provide information which >will orient the user, thereby making it possible for that user to use whatever >navigational mechanisms his or her AT has provided for traversing tables... > >moreover, both the summary and the abbr attributes are clearly identified in >the HTML4 TR as accessibility features > >the HTML4 definition of the "summary" attribute >http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/tables.html#adef-summary >states > >quote >summary = text [CS] > This attribute provides a summary of the table's purpose > and structure for user agents rendering to non-visual > media such as speech and Braille. >unquote > >while the HTML4 definition of the "abbr" attribute >http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/tables.html#adef-abbr >states: > >quote >abbr = text [CS] > This attribute should be used to provide an abbreviated form > of the cell's content, and may be rendered by user agents > when appropriate in place of the cell's content. Abbreviated > names should be short since user agents may render them > repeatedly. For instance, speech synthesizers may render > the abbreviated headers relating to a particular cell before > rendering that cell's content. >unquote > >thus, i would ask that ALL of the structural and contextual slash semantic >markup defined for TABLE in HTML4 be accorded a P1 in WCAG, for, as i was >minuted as stating at the austin face2face: > >quote >GR: I'm not opposed to using the DOM to walk the tree [in order to perform >navigation within tables]. The bottom line is authoring practices: misuse of >markup. Also, lack of implementation of axis/scope/caption/summary. If we push >everything off to the DOM, it's meaningless unless all the pieces are clearly >marked up and defined. I'm not asking for [the user agent to repair] poorly >marked up tables; however, for proper tables, the information needs to be made >available. If we say "Get everything from the DOM" we need to ensure that what >is needed is in the DOM in the first place. >unquote > >gregory. >-------------------------------------------------------- >He that lives on Hope, dies farting > -- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1763 >-------------------------------------------------------- >Gregory J. Rosmaita <unagi69@concentric.net> > WebMaster and Minister of Propaganda, VICUG NYC > <http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/index.html> >-------------------------------------------------------- Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology Chair, W3C WAI User Agent Working Group Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services College of Applied Life Studies University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign 1207 S. Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820 Voice: (217) 244-5870 Fax: (217) 333-0248 E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu WWW: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~jongund WWW: http://www.w3.org/wai/ua
Received on Thursday, 16 December 1999 10:50:53 UTC