[thelist] PHP & Accessibility

Ralph Guzman ralph at nqionline.com
Thu Aug 21 04:59:51 CDT 2003


What was I thinking? I'm converting to stylesheets. :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Andy Budd
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2003 2:26 AM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: Re: [thelist] PHP & Accessibility

  Ralph Guzman wrote:

> Andre,
>
> Where did you read that tables are obsolete?

Um, the WC3?

Tables are really only intended for tabular data and not layout.

> Actually using tables is
> the only method that will ensure you accessibility through multiple
> platforms and browser versions.

What a load of rubbish.

> Tables are the best approach for
> displaying results from any database.

For tabular data true, but not for regular content.

> Your other alternative is to use stylesheets, but stylesheets are only
> supported by newer browsers and the standard is still not consistent
> across multiple platforms.

Well, most version 5 browsers (which incidentally are a good couple of 
years old now) have good CSS support. Version 4 browsers CSS support is 
sketchy but it's fairly simple to serve them a simplified version of 
your stylesheets so the content is accessible. Pages using stylesheets 
are more accessible by default because the style and content are 
separated. Screen readers can just read the content in a linear and 
structured manner and don't have to wade though complicated tables 
trying to make sense of the order.

It's fine to use simple tables but to say that "using tables is the 
only method that will ensure you accessibility through multiple 
platforms and browser versions." seems to show a deep misunderstanding 
of both accessibility, web standards and CSS.

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