Re: Error on HTML4 TH ID and TD HEADERS page

HTML 4 recognizes the reality about marking up tables in the note: 
Note that it's not always possible to make a clean division of cells into headers or data. You should use the TD element for such cells together with the id or scope attributes as appropriate. 
under
11.4.1 Associating header information with data cells
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#adef-scope
Assistive technology and browsers have been rendering this just fine for years when a TD has scope or the headers references an id in a TD cell. 
Sure it is fine to mark up  tables such that all header cells are TH  or only TH cells have scope or an id reference.
But some tables are complex or UI design constraints  do not permit developers (or those fixing the table for accessibility) to mark up all header cells as TH instead of TD. 
So even HTML5 should allow this and not constrain developers.
To answer your question: no there's no bug in HTML4 in this regard.
Thanks and regards,
Sailesh Panchang



________________________________
From: Gian Wild <gian.wild@accessibilityoz.com.au>
To: WCAG <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org> 
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2014 10:19 PM
Subject: Error on HTML4 TH ID and TD HEADERS page



Sorry, not sure who this should go to

In the following content there are a number of "TD ID" which should be "TH ID" (http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#h-11.4.1)

(Begin quoted text)

Below we mark up the travel expense table with category information:
<TABLE border="1"
          summary="This table summarizes travel expenses
                   incurred during August trips to
                   San Jose and Seattle">
<CAPTION>
  Travel Expense Report
</CAPTION>
<TR>
  <TH></TH>
  <TH id="a2" axis="expenses">Meals</TH>
  <TH id="a3" axis="expenses">Hotels</TH>
  <TH id="a4" axis="expenses">Transport</TH>
  <TD>subtotals</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
  <TH id="a6" axis="location">San Jose</TH>
  <TH></TH>
  <TH></TH>
  <TH></TH>
  <TD></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
  <TD id="a7" axis="date">25-Aug-97</TD>
  <TD headers="a6 a7 a2">37.74</TD>
  <TD headers="a6 a7 a3">112.00</TD>
  <TD headers="a6 a7 a4">45.00</TD>
  <TD></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
  <TD id="a8" axis="date">26-Aug-97</TD>
  <TD headers="a6 a8 a2">27.28</TD>
  <TD headers="a6 a8 a3">112.00</TD>
  <TD headers="a6 a8 a4">45.00</TD>
  <TD></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
  <TD>subtotals</TD>
  <TD>65.02</TD>
  <TD>224.00</TD>
  <TD>90.00</TD>
  <TD>379.02</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
  <TH id="a10"
 axis="location">Seattle</TH>
  <TH></TH>
  <TH></TH>
  <TH></TH>
  <TD></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
  <TD id="a11" axis="date">27-Aug-97</TD>
  <TD headers="a10 a11 a2">96.25</TD>
  <TD headers="a10 a11 a3">109.00</TD>
  <TD headers="a10 a11 a4">36.00</TD>
  <TD></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
  <TD id="a12" axis="date">28-Aug-97</TD>
  <TD headers="a10 a12 a2">35.00</TD>
  <TD headers="a10 a12 a3">109.00</TD>
  <TD headers="a10 a12 a4">36.00</TD>
  <TD></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
  <TD>subtotals</TD>
  <TD>131.25</TD>
  <TD>218.00</TD>
  <TD>72.00</TD>
  <TD>421.25</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
  <TH>Totals</TH>
  <TD>196.27</TD>
  <TD>442.00</TD>
  <TD>162.00</TD>
  <TD>800.27</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE> (End quoted text)


Gian