- From: Chris Ridpath <chris.ridpath@utoronto.ca>
- Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 16:30:41 -0400
- To: "Joe Clark" <joeclark@joeclark.org>, "WAI-GL" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
> summary="" is fine if <caption> exists or an ordinary heading or body copy > explains the table. > My feeling is that even if the table is described within the document a caption, summary or title should be required. The reason is similar to why we require alt text for images even if they are described within the document. The table caption, summary or title is the standard method of explaining the table according to the HTML spec. The specification makes clear that the summary is an important part of describing the table: "Authors should therefore take care to provide additional information summarizing the purpose and structure of the table using the summary attribute of the TABLE element." Having the table description explicitly associated with the table means it can be used even if the table is disassociated with the body content. Even if the table is fully described within the document content I don't think it would hurt to duplicate a short portion of the description within the summary, caption or title. Cheers, Chris
Received on Monday, 15 August 2005 20:31:04 UTC