RE: [techs] Definitions of complex data tables

Sorry for being so abstract and technical, Joe. The purpose of these
definitions is for internal (techniques group) communication, so we could
talk about and understand on which kinds of tables certain markup is
required. After having understood and agreed on that, we would hope that
those like you with the gift of writing would be able to help with (take
care of) the wording. I think your wording is good too - repeated here with
"irregular" replacing "complex" because the latter word has been used too
much.

* Irregular tables have [data] cells whose headers are not in the same row
or same column as the cell

* Layered tables have headers that occupy more than one row or column. They
also have header cells in the same row and/or column as the data cell

I actually like the characterization "has more than one row of column
headers or more than one column of row headers". I am just not sure about
the phrase "occupy more than one row or column" - technically, I'm not sure.

* Simple tables have at most one row and/or one column of headings. Header
cells are in the same row and/or column as the data cell.

I think we could define "irregular cell" and "simple cell" and with those
two definitions cover the three above ... but that is getting too technical.

I think the accessibility advice you propose ("use valid code and use
headers where possible") is OK for advice but in some cases we think
headers/id markup should be required and we were trying to understand when
that would be.

Jim
Accessibility, What Not to do: http://jimthatcher.com/whatnot.htm.
Web Accessibility Tutorial: http://jimthatcher.com/webcourse1.htm.

Received on Wednesday, 2 June 2004 17:21:03 UTC