empty table cells (was RE: how to use thead and tbody)

Hi Jamie,

My experience has been to include a "0" [zero] in the blank cells of a
table such as your immigration table. These can be hidden from (most)
sighted users with a span class for the cell [eg .hide {  visibility:
hidden}], but will be read out by a screen reader thus giving a blind
person better orientation within the columns of your table.

WRT an empty table head element, why doesn't the top-left cell describe the
labels in column 1? If this is not needed visually, then again it could
have a span class applied to hide it.

Hope this helps, Andrew
_________________________________
Dr Andrew Arch
Manager, Internet Product Development
Vision Australia Foundation
Ph 613 9864 9222; Fax 613 9864 9210
Mobile 0438 755 565
http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/

Member, Education & Outreach Working Group,
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/




                                                                                             
                    "Jamie Mackay"                                                           
                    <Jamie.Mackay@mc        To:     "Jon Hanna" <jon@spinsol.com>, "wai-ig   
                    h.govt.nz>              list" <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>                        
                    Sent by:                cc:                                              
                    w3c-wai-ig-reque        Subject:     RE: how to use thead and tbody      
                    st@w3.org                                                                
                                                                                             
                                                                                             
                    13/09/01 08:43                                                           
                                                                                             
                                                                                             




I'm glad this came up. I have a couple of other questions:

How should I mark up an 'empty' table head element - a table were there
is no header - as is sometimes the case with the top left-hand cell?

Is it ok to include &nbsp; in empty cells?

If anyone has the time to check this page and let me know if it looks ok
(I fear I might have followed the W3C exapmle too literally) I would
really appreciate it. (BTW I know I am not allowed the border color in
the table, I'm still trying to make this work in CSS):

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/gallery/brit-nz/immig-all-table.htm

I hope you will forgive me for asking what seem like trivial questions
at a time of such crisis and sadness for many of you.

Thanks in anticipation
Jamie Mackay

Received on Wednesday, 12 September 2001 20:09:30 UTC