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

Hi Phill,

Use of TH or scope is absolutely not a 508 requirement. The requirement is
to identify headers; Placing them in row one and column one is
identification. For "complex" tables you need headers (with the for
attribute) markup.

If you have a data table with headings in row one and column one, and for
some bizarre reason you also place one headers attribute on one of the
cells. Now HPR will read the headers for ONLY that cell, not for any others,
while the screen readers will happily read headings from column 1 and row 1
as well as the specially marked up cell.

Jim
jim@jimthatcher.com
Accessibility Consulting
http://jimthatcher.com
512-306-0931

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Phill Jenkins
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 3:55 PM
To: Patrick Burke; Gatewood, Joy
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: 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 17:21:33 UTC