Re: [#293] Summary for tables

Interesting considerations are in an article which I translated for
www.webaccessibile.org, by Jim Byrne:

"Continuing this line of thought - if you use a screen reader that does
understand HTML - why not just alter the current 'standard' and introduce
two new table attributes, 'data' and 'layout' - and let the screen reader
deal with the information accordingly. It might work for those using
conventional computers and conventional visual display - but the reason this
might not be a good idea is that HTML is not meant to be about presentation
(on a computer screen or any other device). The idea is that HTML should
markup up the structure of a documents content - giving information about
the type and 'meaning' of information each tag contains. It may only be in
the future when there are less PCs, as a proportion of all Internet
connected devices on the Web, and we see more automatic computer processing
of Website content that we will see the real benefits of maintaining a
distinction between the structure and presentation of HTML documents. That's
when we can look forward to some real 'payback'; when everyone has agreed
what the standards are - and is acting accordingly."
http://www.mcu.org.uk/articles/tables.html

Best regards,
Roberto Ellero


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Ridpath" <chris.ridpath@utoronto.ca>
To: "Roberto Scano - IWA/HWG" <rscano@iwa-italy.org>; "Jens Meiert"
<jens.meiert@erde3.com>; <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Cc: <www-html@w3.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: [#293] Summary for tables


>
>  <table type="layout" />
>
> The TABLE element does not have a TYPE attribute in HTML4 so, as Roberto
> suggested, this would cause problems.
> http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#edef-TABLE
>
> Even if approved by the XHTML group this would cause problems with HTML
> validator tools.
>
> Chris

Received on Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:11:53 UTC