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Re: Forms in Tables

for

From: David Ashleydale
Date: Jan 17, 2012 9:03PM

Hi Birkir,

That's a good suggestion, but I did specify that the table is not just
merely being used for layout -- it is a semantically correct data table.

Thanks,
David

On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 7:54 PM, Birkir R. Gunnarsson <
<EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> What about utilizing ARIA here and "hiding" the table from the user,
> since it sounds like the table is merely being used for layout.
> What I like about the possibilities of ARIA is that we can allow for
> nice visual layout effects without adversely affecting the
> accessibility of the underlying data, basically low for different
> presentations.
> Feel free to correctme, I may be wrong on this, butit seems to be a
> sensible solution to use ARIA to hide the dta table here and just
> allow the user to see the form fields.
> There was an example posted on this, on this list, quite a while back.
> Cheers
> -B
>
> On 1/18/12, David Ashleydale < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> > 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
> >