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Re: Is this table an acceptably accessible method of marking up this information?

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From: Jim Thatcher
Date: Apr 20, 2005 7:12PM

Hi Don,

The answers so far assume that what you have presented is a data table and I
don't think it is. I think it's a layout table and in my opinion it should
not have a caption, summary or any other data table markup. So as to the
approach, I think laying out the information the way you have it is fine -
but not as a data table.

You can step through the items on the page with up and down arrow. In that
way you can get "pauses" at will. Someone asked how you navigate the table
with JAWS - use CTRL+ALT+arrows to move around the table cells. In fact when
you do that, you can hear just how much this is not a data table!

When someone first listens to their content with a screen reader there are
idiosyncrasies which screen reader users are used to that are disconcerting
at best. Don't worry about no pause at the end of the table row. And
definitely don't try to fix it!

Jim

Accessibility Consulting: http://jimthatcher.com/
512-306-0931