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Forms in Tables

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From: David Ashleydale
Date: Jan 17, 2012 6:33PM

Hi,

I was wondering if this group is of the general opinion that form fields
should be kept out of data tables in HTML. Using assistive technology to
navigate a data table is one thing, and using assistive technology to
navigate a form is another. Should trying to combine the two be discouraged?

Visual designers like to line everything up and to conserve space on a page
by using tables, so it's difficult to discourage them from doing so. And
I'm talking about legitimate data tables here, not simply using the table
element as a layout device. Picture a data table that users can "act on",
like maybe a "Notes" input field at the end of each row.

My gut reaction is to tell the design team to keep tables and forms
separate, but would that be going too far? Would it be too strict (and
unnecessary) of a requirement to tell them *never* to do so?

Just looking for some opinions on the topic.

Thanks,
David Ashleydale