WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Screen readers not reading these tables from DevExpress consistently (NvDA works, Jaws doesn't)

for

From: Pratik Patel
Date: Feb 8, 2012 3:48PM

Is there a layout table lurking somewhere? Does this behavior happen
consistently in Internet Explorer and Firefox when you use both screen
readers?

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Birkir R.
Gunnarsson
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 1:33 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Screen readers not reading these tables from DevExpress
consistently (NvDA works, Jaws doesn't)

Hello all

I am still looking for a solution to this, but this is the first time
in a while I have come across such wild inconsistencies in how screen
readers handle web content, I thought it was worth putting it out
there.
To create the table:
go to http://hbleit.bbi.is
type in Tolkien in the search field and press enter or "hljóðbókaleit"
to get search results for all books by Tolkien.

This results tables should have 7 columns, a button "see more info", a
title, author and a column that indicates whether the book is part of
alarger series (all of these with rowspan = 2). Then 3 columns (or a
column with clspan = 3) with graphics that are aria-labelled as
buttons (download, order on cd, add to wishlist).
Viewing this table with NvDA 2011.3, either in IE9 or Firefox 7, this
works perfectly. One can navigate within the table using
ctrl-alt-arrow keys, table is consistent and predictable.
Trying this with Jaws however, either in IE or Firefox, the first row
is shifted 4 cells to the right.
Jaws announces the table as having 11 columns, not 7.
The first data item that should be in column one, shows up in column
5. The other items to the right of that up to column 11.
Any other row in the table works as expected, 7 columns, each item in
the column it is supposed to be in).
I am working on a set of suggestions to try out (unfortunately the
developer has database connections and other stuff, so he cannot let
me set this up on my machine).
For one thing the td is not explicitly associated with a header with
the headers attribute.
But it still baffles me why Jaws thinks this table has 11 columns, not
7, and since this is a standard datagrid from DevExpress, something
that is fairly widely used for developers, I'd like to get to the
bottom of it, to see if either a DevExpress setting is wrong, or Jaws
is not handling these tables correctly.
If there is a known issue with table reading and Jaws, it'd be great
to see links.

The Web Accessibility toolbar for IE9 does not indicate any issues
with the table.

If anyone has a suggestion on possible culprits that's always appreciated.
I intend to post back after I have done some testing and work with the
developer, especially if the results are something that may help
others.
I hope to have an explanation in a few days.

Cheers
-B