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Re: Table Header/Footer/Body Placement and Reading Order

for

From: Vincent Young
Date: Sep 22, 2011 11:39AM

> Steve - We happen to be discussing <thead>, etc. where I work in terms of
accessibility.
> What happens when an AT user encounters <tfooter>?

It seems that the <thead><tfoot><tbody> information can be exposed, but it
depends on the browser and AT that will convey this information to the
user. As Sailesh pointed out, Window-Eyes appears to be conveying this
information, on, I'm guessing, Internet Explorer. Other AT/browser
combinations parse the page as if these elements do not exist, so the table
rows and cells, in code order, is what will be read. Steve could confirm.

From my perspective, I think <thead><tfoot><tbody> information is beneficial
to the user and should be exposed and at least be a configuration that can
be turned on in AT.

On Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 9:52 AM, Angela French < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Steve - We happen to be discussing <thead>, etc. where I work in terms of
> accessibility. What happens when an AT user encounters <tfooter>?
>
> Angela French
>
>
>
> >I don't know of any AT that take notice of the [thead] [tfoot] [tbody]
> >elements.
> >
> >I would suggest that the only thing that affects table reading order is
> the
> >order of rows and cells in the code.
> >
> >regards
> >Stevef
> >
> >On 21 September 2011 19:23, Vincent Young < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> >wrote:
> >
> >> So the HTML specification says construct tables in the following order:
> >>
> >> [thead] [tfoot] [tbody]
> >>
> >> I've user tested tables, but none when tfoot was involved. Assistive
> >> tecnology tends to read tfoot before any tbody information. Does this
> >> cause any usability issues? I've not seen this really discussed
> >> anywhere such as on WebAim's accessible tables article. I tend to use
> >> thead/tfoot/tbody for
> >> semantic purposes, I guess. It's also really easy to style each
> >> differently through CSS with these elements in place.
> >> Thoughts/opinions/whatevers?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> WebHipster Interactive, ltd.
> >> Vincent Young - Principal
> >> 33 E. Lincoln St.
> >> Columbus, OH 43215
> >> p: 614.607.3400
> >> f: 339-674-3400
> >> e: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> >> w: http://www.webhipster.com
> >>