RE: Does 5.1 absolutely require TH?

Yes, the scope attribute is allowed for table data (i.e., <td>) cells:

HTML 4.01 Specification

11 Tables
11.4 Table rendering by non-visual user agents
11.4.1 Associating header information with data cells
Non-visual user agents such as speech synthesizers and Braille-based
devices may use the following TD and TH element attributes to render table
cells more intuitively:

For a given data cell, the headers attribute lists which cells provide
pertinent header information. For this purpose, each header cell must be
named using the id attribute. Note that it's not always possible to make a
clean division of cells into headers or data. You should use the TD element
for such cells together with the id or scope attributes as appropriate.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/tables.html#h-11.4

Bill Williams

w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org wrote on 09/03/2004 01:52:53 PM:

>   John wrote:
>
> (Jim Thatcher might point out here that the <td> element can have an
> id attribute, and can be referenced by a headers list in another
> <td> element, meaning that a programmatic association can be created
> between two <td> elements. If <td> also supports the scope attribute
> (I can't remember), then it *could* be argued that <td> elements
> placed in the first row and the first column of a table and each
> provided with an id attribute and a scope attribute (if supported),
> would satisfy the requirement to identify column and row headers.
> JAWS would treat them the same as it does <th> elements, I think. Sigh.
>
> John
>
>

Received on Friday, 3 September 2004 21:18:10 UTC