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Re: Complex tables: Scope AND id and header attributes

for

From: Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC)
Date: Oct 23, 2015 3:07PM

On the PDF side you only need to use header and id in the following circumstances.

1. You have headers on the diagonal.
2. You have headers that span multiple rows. - Row span and scope does not seem to get you what it should.

Mike Moore
Accessibility Coordinator
Texas Health and Human Services Commission
Civil Rights Office
(512) 438-3431 (Office)


-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2015 4:01 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Complex tables: Scope AND id and header attributes

Hi

I would avoid headers/id by now (in html), it is being sunsetted and its support by assistive technologies is no better than that of the replacement techniques.
Also, you can no longer use the scope attribute on td cells, you must use them on header (th or td with role="columnheader" or "rowheader") cells.
If you want to indicate that a single row- or column header spans multiple rows or columns, sue the rowspan or colspan attribute with scope="rowgroup" or "colgroup".
E.g.
This header cel is header for two columns:
<th colspan="2" scope="colgroup">Phone numbers</th>

and this is a header for two rows:
<th rowspan="2" scope="rowgroup">My contact info</th>

Colgroup is decently supported on Windows, but support for rowgroup is somewhat buggy, though getting better.
Voiceover (ioS 9.1) does not yet support colgroup properly. It will announce the multi-column header, but does not announce the individual column headers.
if you had this:
<table>
<tr>
<th colspan="2" scope="colgroup">Phone numbers</th> </tr> <tr> <th scope="col">Personal</th> <th scope="col">Business</th> </tr> <tr>
<td>919 999 9999</td>
<td>919777 8797</td>
</tr>
</table>

If you go into the first td cell using table navigation in Jaws or NVDA, they would read:
Phone numbers, personal, 919 999 9999
Voiceover (on iOS) reads:
Phone numbers 919 999 9999.
hth
-Birkir



On 10/23/15, Dona Patrick < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> I recall being told by someone or reading somewhere that one should
> not use both Scope AND id and header attributes in complex tables. I
> don't recall if this was HTML or PDF.
>
> Has anyone else heard this? Is it true or was it misinformation?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dona
> > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >


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