WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: The affect of "scope" attributes in <th> tags

for

From: Joshue O Connor
Date: Aug 26, 2010 1:39PM


FWIW use of @scope is practically useless. Very poorly supported by screen readers.

Cheers

Josh

On 26 Aug 2010, at 16:37, Simius Puer < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> As far as I am aware any cell should only be linked to (a max of) one row
> and one col "scope" according to the W3C spec. It is not overly clear, but
> as I understand it as soon as you go from a "simple" to a "complex" table
> that is where IDs and Headers kick in.
>
> Support for IDs and Headers in AT is reasonable, but where possible you
> should try to keep your tables simple as possible if accessibility is
> vital...even though this technique makes complex tables "accessible" they
> are not easy to use. If you can split the table content up (sometimes you
> simply can't as the layout needs to be preserved) or simplify the headers it
> is a better option (in terms of accessibility).
>
> e.g. your first row contains "Major Category", of which no doubt you have
> many...could each one form a new table and the category can form part of the
> table <caption>.
>
> There are lots of different methods out there, but the simpler you keep it
> the better from an accessibility standpoint...the end result is usually
> tables that everyone finds easier to read too. Sometimes though you have to
> bite the bullet and go with IDs and Headers.
>
>
>