RE: The problem with tables

> -----Original Message-----
> From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
> Behalf Of Jon Gunderson
> Sent: Monday, July 27, 1998 6:35 AM
>
> Thank you for your comments.  I agree that tables were not orginally
> intended for page layout, but they have been coopted for that
> purpose.   I
> don't think WAI should encourage the use of tables for
> layout, but I think
> WAI should ignore the current practice in the use of tables
> for layout in
> the development of guidelines.

I tend to agree with this view.

To me, the use of tables for layout is not going to go away in HTML;
therefore, a more profitable direction would be to fix the relatively few
number of screen readers, rather than the nigh-unto-infinite number of web
pages.

Thanks to Charles McCathieNevile for the excellent example of the problem
with how screen readers deal with HTML content.  Why (he asked, getting
ready to duck) are screen readers so stupid?  A table of contents in a
left-most table cell is tagged as an identifiable HTML block.  Why haven't
any of the screen readers been written to deal with HTML blocks, instead of
just reading across and down?


aloha
--dae





david adam edelstein
davadam@well.com
http://www.well.com/~davadam

"Most real growth involves an element of pain, certainly of confusion.
If you're comfortable with what you're doing, you've been there before."
--Jerry Uelsmann

Received on Monday, 27 July 1998 10:26:32 UTC