dive into mark

Jim Byrne: Table Manners. Jim believes that designers should still use tables for layout because CSS is too hard. I feel this argument is specious (at least when it comes to weblogs) because few bloggers build their own HTML templates from scratch. The recent flurry of CSS-related activity (and associated frustrations) is the result of interest in CSS outpacing available designs. A small number of designers (like Bryan Bell) make the templates that a large number of bloggers use, or at least start with. So there’s a massive economy of scale: once a few key people learn CSS (like Bryan Bell is already doing), the rest of us can leech and learn from their designs.

Towards the end of the article, there is a great explanation of how to create accessible HTML tables that actually hold tabular data. Every data table should have a CAPTION, a SUMMARY, and TH cells for headers, and every TH cell should have a SCOPE that defines which TD cells it is the heading for. Screen readers like JAWS use this information to read the table intelligently. I’ve incorporated these suggestions into my calendar (which, despite some misconceptions in the weblogging community, is definitely a data table, and should definitely use the regular TABLE tags).

Unfortunately for most bloggers, the calendar is one of the things that is generated completely automatically by their tools, so most individuals have no control over how accessible their calendar is. Greymatter allows complete control over the templates used to create the calendar, so I was able to make mine both simpler (eliminating redundant style information) and more accessible (by adding the non-visual metadata).

Still, if you use tables for anything (data or layout) and have control over their generation, you should read this article to see how easy it is to make your tables more accessible. A little effort goes a long way.

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