E-mail List Archives
Thread: Table Headings
Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)
From: Susan Grossman
Date: Thu, Aug 26 2010 9:51AM
Subject: Table Headings
No previous message | Next message →
I'm working for a site (pre-existing small web application) that uses a
couple of tabular data tables (short ones with only a few columns/rows, but
they are data) without any <th> (headings), captions , summaries, etc.
They need to be compliant so I'm working up how they're going to do it...
the constraint being I can't change the way it looks, because then they have
to go back to the design team and that's out of scope. Unfortunately there
isn't any visual appearance of headings, so I can't just change a row of
<td>'s, since they don't exist in the design.
What are the consequences (usability wise) of adding them non-visually,
either trying to work them off-screen like with skip links, or using
display:none Don't want to be just compliant, want to be compliant and
usable...
Are there other suggestions?
Thanks
--
*Susan R. Grossman*
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
From: Langum, Michael J
Date: Thu, Aug 26 2010 9:57AM
Subject: Re: Table Headings
← Previous message | Next message →
Susan,
Definitely use <th> tags with appropriate "scope" attributes. Then use CSS to modify the default appearance -- e.g. th {font-weight:normal;text-align:left}
-- Mike
From: Duff Johnson
Date: Thu, Aug 26 2010 10:00AM
Subject: Re: Table Headings
← Previous message | Next message →
On Aug 26, 2010, at 11:49 AM, Susan Grossman wrote:
> I'm working for a site (pre-existing small web application) that uses a
> couple of tabular data tables (short ones with only a few columns/rows, but
> they are data) without any <th> (headings), captions , summaries, etc.
I'm not sure I understand the concept of a "data table" without any <TH> cells. It's more or less a contradiction in terms. Can you provide a link to the example?
Duff Johnson
Appligent Document Solutions
http://www.appligent.com
From: Jared Smith
Date: Thu, Aug 26 2010 10:06AM
Subject: Re: Table Headings
← Previous message | Next message →
I can't quite envision what it is you're describing.
If the data makes sense without headers (this is a rarity), then why
beat yourself up trying to hack it to do something more? If it's
accessible already, do nothing - even if some rule or tool is
suggesting you need headers.
If, on the other hand, the table has headers that are not marked up as
<th>s, I can think of nothing you can do other than simply change the
header <td>s to <th>s, and optimally add the appropriate scope. As
Michael noted, you can modify them with CSS so they appear as <td>s,
if you must.
If, on the third hand (?), the table does not have headers but needs
them, it surely won't be very accessible unless they are provided to
everyone. I don't believe there's a way to position table header cells
off-screen. display:none would render them invisible to everyone.
Jared Smith
From: Simius Puer
Date: Thu, Aug 26 2010 10:09AM
Subject: Re: Table Headings
← Previous message | Next message →
I have to agree - to not use <th>s or to hide them to preserve some in-house
politics surrounding design sounds a little crazy...a data table has <th>s
and this is what all users expect to see. If someone missed it of the
requirements for the design team then that is a little slack, not only on
their part, but also by the design team who should have pointed out the
omission.
"Note: For simple tables that have the headers in the first row or column
then *it is sufficient to simply use the TH elements without scope*."
- W3C H63: Using the scope attribute to associate header cells and data
cells in data tables <http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-TECHS/H63.html>;
Creating a <th> that looks like a <td> sounds like a very bad idea just to
achieve accessibility...what happened to universal design?
From: Susan Grossman
Date: Thu, Aug 26 2010 10:21AM
Subject: Re: Table Headings
← Previous message | No next message
>"Note: For simple tables that have the headers in the first row or column
then *it is sufficient to simply use the TH elements without scope*."
- W3C H63: Using the scope attribute to associate header cells and data
cells in data tables <http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-TECHS/H63.html>;
Thanks for everyone's quick replies. I was struggling with all the things
you were voicing, then I read this bit and went back and looked at the
tables with new eyes, and yes, they do seem to fit this format when you look
at the first column.
It's hard to express because they use some graphical elements and some form
elements. It was because of the form elements that I was worried about the
lack of headings, not just the "tool".
I can make this work logically for everyone, sound correct and pass the
"tool", after looking with "new eyes"
Thanks again - Susan
On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 9:08 AM, Simius Puer < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >wrote:
> I have to agree - to not use <th>s or to hide them to preserve some
> in-house
> politics surrounding design sounds a little crazy...a data table has <th>s
> and this is what all users expect to see. If someone missed it of the
> requirements for the design team then that is a little slack, not only on
> their part, but also by the design team who should have pointed out the
> omission.
>
> "Note: For simple tables that have the headers in the first row or column
> then *it is sufficient to simply use the TH elements without scope*."
> - W3C H63: Using the scope attribute to associate header cells and data
> cells in data tables <http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-TECHS/H63.html>;
>
> Creating a <th> that looks like a <td> sounds like a very bad idea just to
> achieve accessibility...what happened to universal design?
>
>
>