Re: Accessible tables

But don't forget to use the summary attribute!
<table (size) (border) (etc) summary="Table used for
layout.">
or
<table (size) (border) (etc) summary="This table
displays the results of...">

Barry Johnson

--- Donna Smillie <dms(at)zetnet.co.uk> wrote:
> If you are using tables to display genuinely tabular
> information, as in the
> example below, rather than just to lay out the page
> visually, you should use
> TH to identify row and column headings.
> 
> (WAI priority 1 checkpoint 5.1: For data tables,
> identify row and column
> headers).
> 
> The "scope" attribute is useful if you need to
> identify which table cells
> the heading refers to, i.e. when the table goes
> beyond simple "1 heading for
> each row or column" structure.
> 
> (WAI priority 1 checkpoint 5.2: For data tables that
> have two or more
> logical levels of row or column headers, use markup
> to associate data cells
> and header cells).
> 
> For anyone using speech or braille output, tables
> can get pretty confusing,
> since you get the content read out one cell at a
> time, row by row.  By the
> time you get to row 5 column 4, remembering what the
> row and column headings
> were for that cell can become difficult! :-)  Some
> screen readers offer the
> facility for the user to trigger the screen reader
> to read out the headings
> associated with the current table cell, but the
> software can only do that if
> the headings are coded as headings (TH) rather than
> data (TD).
> 
> Of course, TH (or any of the available additional
> markup like "scope")
> should *not* be used in any table which is being
> used purely for layout
> purposes, since that could become even more
> confusing - just use it for
> tables displaying tabular information.
> 
> HTH!
> 
> Regards,
> Donna
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Emerald Spirit <emerald_spirit(at)yahoo.com>
> To: <aware-techniques(at)hwg.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2002 12:16 AM
> Subject: RE: Accessible tables
> 
> 
> > OK...
> >
> > I haven't looked at availability standards in a
> while,
> > but I don't remember anything about scope.  Can
> > somebody explain?  Also, I don't typically use
> header
> > rows , just typical TR and TD and TABLE tags...
> are
> > header rows necessary for availability standards,
> or
> > just the preference of the HTML coder?
> >
> > Rebecca
> 
> 


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