[thelist] arguments pro css & xhtml / con tables

[Christian Heilmann]

> >     All of those are valid reasons but the main thing you need to
> > stipulate to them is the fact that using table based layouts these days
> > is tantamount to them saying 'we don't care about disabled users'.
>
> While supporting the use of CSS layout over tables, I'm sorry to have to
> contradict you; your comment above is incorrect. There are generally no
> significant accessibility problems resulting from the use of tables. It
> really isn't something to worry about. Use CSS for other reasons.

Interesting. What do you base this on? Saying tables make web pages
inaccessible is as odd as saying tables don't pose an accessibility
issue at all. If you nest your content deep into several tables in a
random order that does not serialise properly of course you have an
accessibility problem. Not necessarily for blind users but for text
browser users or mobile devices.

Personally I don't see any reason that would warrant tables for layout
(not for marking up tabular data, which is what they are for) these
days at all. Designs tend to need to be more flexible these days
rather than set-in-stone-pixel-perfect layout beauties, and this is
where CSS beats tables hands-down because it does not contain a fixed
presentation state as tables do. I've encountered more problems with
table layouts in modern browsers than with CSS, especially when it
comes to maintaining the page and load/rendering speed.

-- 
Chris Heilmann
Blog: http://www.wait-till-i.com
Writing: http://icant.co.uk/
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