- From: John M Slatin <john_slatin@austin.utexas.edu>
- Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2003 09:09:05 -0500
- To: "Kynn Bartlett" <kynn@idyllmtn.com>
- Cc: "Michael Cooper" <michaelc@watchfire.com>, "WAI GL (E-mail)" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Thanks, Kynn. I know my analogy between summary and alt breaks where the current HTML and XHTML specifications are concerned; I like the idea of submitting this to the XHTML WG. And I know that most tables now in existence fail, but they also fail current WCAG checkpoints if you push it down far enough. As for the content of the summary, I think that's context-specific, just as ALT text is. I like to think of the summary as providing information about the table that a sighted user could get from a quick scan of the table but that would take a long time to emerge from listening to the table. John John Slatin, Ph.D. Director, Institute for Technology & Learning 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.ital.utexas.edu -----Original Message----- From: Kynn Bartlett [mailto:kynn@idyllmtn.com] Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 6:46 pm To: John M Slatin Cc: Michael Cooper; WAI GL (E-mail) Subject: Re: [#293] Summary for tables On Friday, June 6, 2003, at 02:38 PM, John M Slatin wrote: > Rationale > 1. Simplicity: it is easier for developers to remember that they have > to > provide a summary attribute if they have to do it for every table. > (Authoring tools can eventually be considerable help here...) > 2. Consistency: as I've said previously, I think of the summary as "alt > text for tables." Since HTML requires an alt attribute for every <img> > element, consistency would require a summary attribute for every > <table> > element. Screen readers have already begun to support the null > summary. > 3. Testability. If the summary is a required attribute, testing tools > can easily be set to look for it; empty summary attributes for tables > that otherwise satisfy the tool's heuristics for identifying data > tables > could then be flagged for user check, etc. This is a good rationale, but note that nearly all tables currently in existence will fail, and the HTML specification does not require a summary attr, although it does require an alt attr. Perhaps this suggestion should be submitted to the (X)HTML working group for XHTML 2.0? I think it's a good answer, but support will take a long time. Also, we need guidelines as to what "summary" should include. In my opinion, it should be a statement of "what you'd learn from this, in the form of what you'd read over the phone to your friend who doesn't want specific details." In other words, something like summary="Republican Presidents have created the largest deficits" or the like. (Assuming a table that shows presidents, that president's party, and budget deficits, per year.) --Kynn -- Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com> http://kynn.com Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain http://idyllmtn.com Author, CSS in 24 Hours http://cssin24hours.com Inland Anti-Empire Blog http://blog.kynn.com/iae Shock & Awe Blog http://blog.kynn.com/shock
Received on Monday, 9 June 2003 10:09:07 UTC