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RE: data tables

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From: julian.rickards@ndm.gov.on.ca
Date: Apr 10, 2003 12:08PM

Cheryl wrote:

<snip>
> Trying to make this data accessible, I used <th scope="col"> for the
> column headers and <th scope="row"> for row headers. I thought that as
> this is a simple table, a screen reader would read this as "Abbe -
> Standard Basic 15% 60.24. Standard Full 30% 120.48, Standard Comp 40%
> 160.65" etc. However, JAWS reads this table left to right without
> reading the column headings.
</snip>

Scope should do it but I think (correct me someone if I am wrong) that you
don't need the scope on the rows because the top of the library column has a
heading and scope=col which should identify the first column as a list of
libraries. That top left corner is always a bit of a problem because "does
it summarize the column headings to the right or the row headings below?".
In your case, you are sumarizing the headings below which is why I thought
that if you scope=col the top left corner, you don't need scope=row on any
of the libraries below it.

<snip>
> Do I need to use the abbr or headers attribute instead? The URL of my
> table is ...
</snip>

No, the additional complexity of headers and ids is for tables where there
are multiple levels of headers and joined/merged header cells.

However, abbr may be useful to clarify the library abbreviations.

Jules


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