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RE: Why do we need 'Scope' attribute?

for

From: Jim Thatcher
Date: Jul 18, 2005 8:34PM

This is a very troubling question for me. Today screen readers assume the
first row and the first column are headers with no markup whatsoever. Well,
to be good citizens, we add TH's on those table cells that are headers even
though the screen readers don't need them. But the scope attribute? I
believe the ONLY cell that needs a scope attribute is the cell in the first
row and first column, cell 1,1, because that corner cell could either be a
row header or a column header (or neither). What scope could the TH in row
1, column 7 have besides scope="col".



I advise clients to use TH and scope - but darn it, it is redundant and
unnecessary - even silly!



Jim



Accessibility Consulting: http://jimthatcher.com/

512-306-0931