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Table accessibility/WebKing

LegacyForum
LegacyForum Posts: 1,664 ✭✭
Identifying Data or Layout table
Hi,

I have a html that has a table with 3 columns - the first two columns containing the images/links and the third column with data. For the user, this looks like a data table with a header row and many data rows. But WebKing treats this as a layout table (it does not consider the images in first two columns as data).

The problem is that when the page containing this table is read in Home Page Reader using Table Navigation mode, it does not read as it should be!

If I define the table with id (TH) and headers(TD) attributes, Home Page Reader reads the table (in Table Navigation mode) properly, but WebKing reports an error saying Table Headers should not be defined for "layout" tables.

Any suggestions on how this should work? Thanks in advance.

- Raju Jakkarasa

Comments

  • LegacyForum
    LegacyForum Posts: 1,664 ✭✭
    edited December 2004
    My guess is you're getting errors from the TableAccessibility rule. That being the case, it's important to know that the TableAccessibility rule uses a heuristic when deciding if a table is a data table versus a layout table. That heuristic is:

    1) Check that the table's SUMMARY attribute does not contain the word "layout" (case-insensitive).
    2) Check that the table does not contain any other tables in its body.
    3) Check that the table has at least two rows with at least two cells that contain text.

    If all these conditions are true, then the table is considered to be a data table. If they are not all true, the table is considered to be a layout table.

    (Taken from the TableAccessibility rule help documentation.)

    Because TableAccessibility rule is using a heuristic, it will not always be able to determine between a layout table and a data table. Your table sounds like it falls in this category. Probably the best course of action is to suppress the errors coming from that rule on that page (right click an error from that rule and choose "Suppress..." then select the option "All TableAccessibility.rule violations in " where is the name of the page where your table exists).


    Let me know if you have any other questions regarding this rule either by posting a reply on this site or by emailing webkingsupport@parasoft.com. If you are referring to some HTML on the page, it is also helpful to include the source HTML as a reference.