WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: data or layout table

for

From: deborah.kaplan@suberic.net
Date: Sep 2, 2011 1:21PM

The nuance in this conversation is fascinating; thanks, guys.

In this case, the quilt is 16 by 6, so there's a fair number of
panels. I definitely like the idea of providing some structure to
make it easier to navigate (so, for example, if someone remembers
they were the contributor to the panel in column 13, row 3, it
becomes easier to navigate to that panel). Using a table instead
of a CSS grid seems to provide that structure.

John, good point about providing the row/column information in
the alt text. I have that metadata available to me (and it's how
I will be laying out the HTML in the first place), so there's no
reason not to add it to the image title.

John said,

> I will assume that there will also be surrounding/related text (instructions) that could also help clarify this to end users, as well as the linked text about that quilt block itself.

Indeed!

> I really think that this is a case where "figuring out accessibility" requires some thinking "outside of the box"

Yes, this is definitely one of those occasions where
accessibility is all about subtleties.

And on that note, I have another question about this same
project, because I have some idea about how to design for screen
readers but I admit I am terrible at designing for magnification.
Because this quilt is 16 by 6, it's very wide. I'm torn between
leaving it as it is with the understanding that people will have
to use their horizontal scrollbars on pretty much any monitor, or
rotating the whole thing 90° -- which means the thumbnails will
be on their sides. The latter seems much more sensible to me, but
I don't know if that would cause visual or cognitive problems.

-Deborah