[thelist] coding for assistive technology

Pearson, John JOHN.PEARSON at eia.doe.gov
Thu Feb 7 11:50:01 CST 2002


does anyone know of an HTML editor that implements this technique of using
scope="row" or scope="col" as described here.  Does Homesite 5 do it?

this is an extract from some documentation that is probably copyrighted but...

How can HTML tables be made readable with assistive technology?
Using the "Scope" Attribute in Tables - Using the "scope" attribute is one of the
most effective ways of making HTML compliant with these requirements. It is also
the simplest method to implement. The scope attribute also works with some (but
not all) assistive technology in tables that use "colspan" or "rowspan"
attributes in table header or data cells.
Using the Scope Attribute - The first row of each table should include column
headings. Typically, these column headings are inserted in <TH> tags, although
<TD> tags can also be used. These tags at the top of each column should include
the following attribute:

scope="col"

By doing this simple step, the text in that cell becomes associated with every
cell in that column. Unlike using other approaches (notably "id" and "headers")
there is no need to include special attributes in each cell of the table.
Similarly, the first column of every table should include information identifying
information about each row in the table. Each of the cells in that first column
are created by either <TH> or <TD> tags. Include the following attribute in these
cells:

scope="row"

By simply adding this attribute, the text in that cell becomes associated with
every cell in that row. While this technique dramatically improves the usability
of a web page, using the scope attribute does not appear to interfere in any way
with browsers that do not support the attribute.





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