Re: Accessibility in XHTML 2.0 Draft - Tables

I had a few extra considerations for creating sections within a <table>
structure, since that would be a little more complex than just
sectioning-off more simple parts of a page like paragraphs.  For one you
could just put an entire table within a section like this:

<section>
	<table>

	</table>
</section>

Or you could possibly include leading or tailing content around a table
like this:

<section>
<h></h>
<p></p>
		<table>

		</table>
<p></p>
</section>

If you would want to create a <section> within a table, however, you
would have to make special considerations.  One rule you might have for
sections is that if you begin an element within a <section> you have to
end the element within the <section>.  For example, something like this
wouldn't be allowed:

<section>
<table>
<tbody>
	<td>
	</td>
</section>
	<td>
	</td>
</tbody>
</table>

If you would want to section-off an entire cell you could have two
options.  If you just want to section-off the content of a cell you
might do something like:

<td>
	<section>
	<p></p>
	</section>
</td>

If you would like to include things like the cell border, cell padding,
or other table properties when that section is displayed by itself you
would include the table data element within the <section>, like this:

<section>
<td>
	<p></p>
</td>
</section>

If you would like to include an entire row of cells in a <section> you
could do something like this:

<section>
<tr>
	<td>
	</td>
	<td>
	</td>
</tr>
</section>

If you want to include only a few cells of a row you might do something
like this:

<tr>
<section>
	<td>
	</td>
	<td>
	</td>
</section>
	<td>
	</td>
</tr>

Including a column of cells in a section would be a little bit trickier
since the code for those vertical cells are spaced out between rows
(even though when they are displayed on the screen they are right next
to each other but just vertically instead of horizontally like a row). 
Perhaps you could just use the same value in the 'id' attribute for any
one <section> that is partially defined in more than one part of the
code.  Since technically they are just one section only partially
defined in two or more separate places in the code (not considered
something like two separate sections in one) using the same 'id' value
would represent the fact that they are one complete section and should
be treated that way by the browser, like with relative link references. 
For instance, maybe something like this could work:

<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<section id="sameid">
	<td>
	</td>
</section>
	<td>
	</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<section id="sameid">
	<td>
	</td>
</section>
	<td>
	</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

These are a few extra considerations for how to possibly use an element
like <section> in relation to a <table> structure to increase
accessibility to users.

Received on Monday, 3 November 2003 08:57:59 UTC