Thread Subject: Re: tables in wiki?

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From: Bailey Bruce
Date: Mon, Oct 30 2006 7:10 AM

Just responding to the bits I can.

> This surprises me -- HTML tables are more accessible than Excel?

Speaking broadly, yes, although I am quite sure there are many assistive
technology users who prefer Excel. I will give just two examples of the
systemic problems.

Authors love to convey headings and other similar relationships
visually. Excel provides no mechanism for multi-level headings. The
screen reading software provides a keystroke for marking a particular
row or heading or column as a heading, but this is not 100% reliable,
and one first has to search for and determine that said row or column is
acting like a heading!

White space is another nightmare. How do you quickly tell non-visually
that you are at the end of a data area? How do you know there is not
notes or a new table below or to the right of the one you just finished
reading? Then there is the habit of authors inserting empty columns or
rows rather just than padding cells or adjusting column width or row
height.

> Easier for a screen reader user to use, including editing?

I think a good argument can be made that it is easier to edit wiki text
than a spreadsheet, especially in the case where one is not the original
primary author of the spreadsheet.

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