Re: JAWS doesn't seem to hear Table annotations?

I was told that IBM Home Page Reader (HPR) 3.0 is the only screen reader
that actually supports the table headers mark-up and that JAWs isn't using
the markup, but the top cell in the column.  Odd isn't it that it's both a
WCAG and 508 requirement but only one A.T. supports it?

A free trail version of HPR is available from
http://www-3.ibm.com/able/hprtrial3.html

Regards,
Phill Jenkins




Patrick Burke <burke@ucla.edu>@w3.org on 11/06/2001 12:42:32 PM

Sent by:  w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org


To:   "Gatewood, Joy" <jogat@opic.gov>, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
cc:
Subject:  Re: JAWS doesn't seem to hear Table annotations?



Hi Joy,

Jaws won't read the table as described automatically, but the header & cell
information can be obtained with the CONTROL+ALT+Numericpad5 keystroke.
(Control+Alt+arrow keys may also speak the cell information, but I'm a bit
hazy on which applications these are supposed to work in.)


>http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-HTML-TECHS/#identifying-table-rows-columns

is the definitive table reference.

Be glad you don't have to code for Jaws perfection, though. In general, as
a designer it's best to code to the standard & let the various screen
readers do the rest. If Jaws or another program doesn't implement
correctly, it's their problem.

Patrick

At 10:22 AM 11/6/01, Gatewood, Joy wrote:
>Hello all -
>I hope that someone here can help me.  I am a consultant for gov't
agencies
>in Washington, D.C., working to make their websites meet the Section 508
>criteria.
>
>I'm especially concerned with trying to make tables containing data meet
>these Section 508 criteria:
>
>(g) Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.
>
>(h) Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data
>tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers.
>
>JAWS does not seem to render the tables that I have annotated regardless
of
>the method uses -  "scope", "headers", and "axis" attributes.  The table
is
>read exactly as it was before, except that now the caption is read.
>
>Is there something I should be doing to put JAWS in the "table" mode?  I
am
>using JAWS 3.5 and MSIE 5.0
>
>Could someone point me to a page that contains a perfectly annotated table
>that JAWS will read?
>
>Thanks in advance for your help.
>
>Joy Gatewood
>ERIM/VRI
>www.vrionline.com
>jogat@opic.gov
>-----------------------------------------------------

Received on Tuesday, 6 November 2001 16:55:54 UTC