Re: User agent support of SUMMARY attribute in tables

HI Dave,
They are not banned, but I agree discouraged, but at any rate I was not addressing the question of whether or not tables for layout should be used, that's another question.
I was providing my interpretation of 5.5 and its implications for what I think tools like Bobby should do,
which, as I thought this thread was about, was all boiling down to the use vs. nonuse of the summary attribute.
Is there something  in my interpretation of 5.5 that you disagree with?
If so, can you say why?

Steve


>>> David Poehlman <poehlman1@comcast.net> 01/22/03 03:33PM >>>

are we not told also in the guidelines though not to use tables for lay out
or is this not at least discouraged?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven McCaffrey" <smccaffr@MAIL.NYSED.GOV>
To: <poehlman1@comcast.net>; <pjenkins@us.ibm.com>; <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 3:23 PM
Subject: Re: User agent support of SUMMARY attribute in tables


Hi all:

My interpretation of,

"5.5 Provide summaries for tables. [Priority 3] For example, in HTML, use
the "summary" attribute of the TABLE element."
has three parts.


First, it has lowest priority, priority 3 so only important if you are
trying for AAA (triple A).
Second, since there is no qualifier before "tables" I assume the text that
follows applies to all tables, data and layout.
Thirdly, it just says summary attribute is an example if using HTML,
presumably allowing non-html ways to provide a summary (is there a CSS way
to do this?)
What 5.5  requires  is a summary.
I interpret "For example, in HTML"
as implying "if not using HTML, a different example applies".
If using HTML, then use the summary attribute as the mechanism for providing
the summary.
So, in my opinion, Bobby or any accessibility tool using 5.5 as written
above should flag any table using HTML to give a summary that does not have
a summary attribute.
I'll have to check the techniques document to see if any other HTML method
other than the summary attribute is given and what non-HTML examples there
might be.

Just my 2 cents,

Steve

Received on Wednesday, 22 January 2003 16:12:19 UTC