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Thread: IMAGE OF TABLE LINKED TO DESCRIPTIVE FILE
Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)
From: Laurie Davis-Covin
Date: Fri, Nov 01 2002 7:57AM
Subject: IMAGE OF TABLE LINKED TO DESCRIPTIVE FILE
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As I have the time to review items in this forum, I find that some give
rise to many different thoughts on the issue of accessibility and the
techniques used to make Web pages accessible.
I would like to hear your thoughts on the following situation.
Someone asked me - if in lieu of inserting a descriptive link before their
simple data table, which is a gif file,
would it be considered accessible to make the table a link to the
description of the table. In the alt tag say, for instance,
"This is an image of a table listing names of members under each of three
different departments,
A, B and C; the link leads to a description of this table."
Personally, it appears to me to be a bit contrived - and the table, as a
gif file, begins its life as being less accessible.
But, please give me your opinions. I've learned so much from this forum!
Laurie Davis-Covin, Web Specialist
SAIC @ National Institute of
Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive
Admin. Building, Room E 220
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
Ph: 301-975-8027
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visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
From: John Foliot - bytown internet
Date: Fri, Nov 01 2002 8:35AM
Subject: RE: IMAGE OF TABLE LINKED TO DESCRIPTIVE FILE
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Laurie,
You are very right... a table as a gif file is extremely inaccessible...why
not use table markup instead?
But...
If that option is not available, then a combination of LONGDESC and perhaps
even a "d link" would deliver what I believe you are suggesting. For an
example of what I mean, along with sample code, see:
www.bytowninternet.com/examples/longdesc.html
Currently, the latest version of JAWs supports the use of LONGDESC as does
IBM Home Page Reader, however older versions of these programs, as well as
other lesser know screen readers may not support this element (which was
introduced in HTML 4.0). For this reason I have also provided the "d link"
mechanism, which provides backwards compatibility. Some members of this
list may object to my "hiding" of the "D", but being a pragmatist I have a
real hard time selling to my clients the concept of a big blue "D" after
every image... At least by hiding it as I have I can provide it to a large
percentage of users who actually NEED such a mechanism; it's the lesser of 2
evils I guess.
Anyway, hope this helps.
JF
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Laurie Davis-Covin [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
> Sent: November 1, 2002 9:48 AM
> To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> Subject: IMAGE OF TABLE LINKED TO DESCRIPTIVE FILE
>
>
> As I have the time to review items in this forum, I find that some give
> rise to many different thoughts on the issue of accessibility and the
> techniques used to make Web pages accessible.
> I would like to hear your thoughts on the following situation.
>
>
> Someone asked me - if in lieu of inserting a descriptive link
> before their
> simple data table, which is a gif file,
> would it be considered accessible to make the table a link to the
> description of the table. In the alt tag say, for instance,
> "This is an image of a table listing names of members under each of three
> different departments,
> A, B and C; the link leads to a description of this table."
>
> Personally, it appears to me to be a bit contrived - and the table, as a
> gif file, begins its life as being less accessible.
> But, please give me your opinions. I've learned so much from this forum!
>
>
>
> Laurie Davis-Covin, Web Specialist
> SAIC @ National Institute of
> Standards and Technology
> 100 Bureau Drive
> Admin. Building, Room E 220
> Gaithersburg, MD 20899
> Ph: 301-975-8027
>
>
>
>
>
> ----
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
> visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
>
----
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
From: Mark Rew
Date: Fri, Nov 01 2002 8:49AM
Subject: Re: IMAGE OF TABLE LINKED TO DESCRIPTIVE FILE
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Hi Laurie,
The alt tag solution would be very difficult to make truly Section 508
compliant. This is because it will be hard to associate data values with the
corresponding row and column headings.
In a project I worked on a couple of years ago we used alt tags for each td
element in the table. The alt tags restated the appropriate heading
information then the data value. Again, we had an html table with graphics in
the table cells.
The best solution would to use an html table. Hence, you would only need an
alt tag for the graphical data, the screen reader could associate the cell
with the row or column headings. You may need to use the scope attribute in
the heading cells. Even Jaws is able to track when the scope attribute is
being used.
Mark Rew
----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurie Davis-Covin" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 9:47 AM
Subject: IMAGE OF TABLE LINKED TO DESCRIPTIVE FILE
> As I have the time to review items in this forum, I find that some give
> rise to many different thoughts on the issue of accessibility and the
> techniques used to make Web pages accessible.
> I would like to hear your thoughts on the following situation.
>
>
> Someone asked me - if in lieu of inserting a descriptive link before their
> simple data table, which is a gif file,
> would it be considered accessible to make the table a link to the
> description of the table. In the alt tag say, for instance,
> "This is an image of a table listing names of members under each of three
> different departments,
> A, B and C; the link leads to a description of this table."
>
> Personally, it appears to me to be a bit contrived - and the table, as a
> gif file, begins its life as being less accessible.
> But, please give me your opinions. I've learned so much from this forum!
>
>
>
> Laurie Davis-Covin, Web Specialist
> SAIC @ National Institute of
> Standards and Technology
> 100 Bureau Drive
> Admin. Building, Room E 220
> Gaithersburg, MD 20899
> Ph: 301-975-8027
>
>
>
>
>
> ----
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
> visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
>
>
----
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
From: Laurie Davis-Covin
Date: Fri, Nov 01 2002 9:03AM
Subject: Re: IMAGE OF TABLE LINKED TO DESCRIPTIVE FILE
← Previous message | No next message
Hi, Mark--
Thanks for responding. I didn't make myself very clear in my email. The
table itself is a gif file, and would be linked to a descriptive page on
the table and its contents.
But I agree with using an html table. It's a pretty simple data table. I
believe she'd just need to use th for headings.
Again, thanks, I appreciate your thoughts!
At 10:40 AM 11/1/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi Laurie,
>
>The alt tag solution would be very difficult to make truly Section 508
>compliant. This is because it will be hard to associate data values with the
>corresponding row and column headings.
>
>In a project I worked on a couple of years ago we used alt tags for each td
>element in the table. The alt tags restated the appropriate heading
>information then the data value. Again, we had an html table with graphics in
>the table cells.
>
>The best solution would to use an html table. Hence, you would only need an
>alt tag for the graphical data, the screen reader could associate the cell
>with the row or column headings. You may need to use the scope attribute in
>the heading cells. Even Jaws is able to track when the scope attribute is
>being used.
>
>Mark Rew
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Laurie Davis-Covin" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>To: < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 9:47 AM
>Subject: IMAGE OF TABLE LINKED TO DESCRIPTIVE FILE
>
>
> > As I have the time to review items in this forum, I find that some give
> > rise to many different thoughts on the issue of accessibility and the
> > techniques used to make Web pages accessible.
> > I would like to hear your thoughts on the following situation.
> >
> >
> > Someone asked me - if in lieu of inserting a descriptive link before their
> > simple data table, which is a gif file,
> > would it be considered accessible to make the table a link to the
> > description of the table. In the alt tag say, for instance,
> > "This is an image of a table listing names of members under each of three
> > different departments,
> > A, B and C; the link leads to a description of this table."
> >
> > Personally, it appears to me to be a bit contrived - and the table, as a
> > gif file, begins its life as being less accessible.
> > But, please give me your opinions. I've learned so much from this forum!
> >
> >
> >
> > Laurie Davis-Covin, Web Specialist
> > SAIC @ National Institute of
> > Standards and Technology
> > 100 Bureau Drive
> > Admin. Building, Room E 220
> > Gaithersburg, MD 20899
> > Ph: 301-975-8027
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----
> > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
> > visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
> >
> >
>
>
>----
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
>visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
Laurie Davis-Covin, Web Specialist
SAIC @ National Institute of
Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive
Admin. Building, Room E 220
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
Ph: 301-975-8027
----
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/