FW: CSS positioning aint good enough?

In response to this Chaals sent me a mail off-list which I have included
below - it follows on from his last post to the thread. 

<quote>

Well, the point is that there is an inherent tablarity in forms of this
type,
but that is not clearly supported by the markup available in HTML 4, unless
we explicitly recognise table headings for a cell as being functionally
equivalent to form control labels.

If there is no reason not to do this, and the technology exists to find the
table headers for form controls as well as the label or legend elements
applicable then it would be possible to lay out tabular forms and get
improved accessibility by being able to find out all the appropriate
labelling information.

cheers

Chaals

</quote>

to which I replied:
<snip>
.. your argument seems to suggest that HTML4 markup is not sufficient and
that the use of tables can add to the accessibility of forms of this type.
If so, is there not a case for extending the markup available for forms so
that those which obviously don't fit the tabular data model can be made more
accessible. Also, I might be being slightly denser than usual this morning
but if a form element has a label/legend explicitly associated with it how
can associating a column header with the same element increase
accessibility. Doesn't the label give the same information as the <tr>
would?
</snip>

Apart from the obvious typo (<tr> instead of <th>)does anyone else feel that
the association of table headers with form elements actually adds
accessibility over and above that provided for by the use of labels and
legends? If so could someone please explain to me what that added value
would be? I'm not trying to be awkward here, I just want to understand.


Julian

-----Original Message-----
From: RUST Randal [mailto:RRust@COVANSYS.com]
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 1:30 PM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: RE: CSS positioning aint good enough?


>re Nick's view that forms are tabular data. I'd be interested 
>in his (or
>anyone else's) argument for this. IMHO forms are not tabular 
>data; never
>have been and never will be.

I recently asked this question, probably about 3 weeks ago.  Overwhelmingly,
the answer was that forms are not tabular date, which is what I thought.

Randal
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Received on Friday, 26 April 2002 08:49:28 UTC