Pranav,

You have some very good questions:

In terms of using the table tags such as <th>...</th>, that is
sufficient if it is clear from the tags at the end of each row and
column what the meaning of the content of a cell is.  You may, at
times, have more than one row of header, or a single cell that spans
several columns or rows of data.  In these cases, there is cell level
mark-up  that indicates which header cells relate to an individual cell.

The use of style sheets rather than tables applies only to using tables
for page layout - the positioning of information on the page.  CSS
positioning does the same thing, and can result in a readable page if
the layout is linearlized.  But for tabular data, tables are perfectly
OK.  However, you might consider using CSS if you are formatting the
content of the cells rather than <font> </font> or other such tags.


Pranav Lal wrote:


>Hi all,
>
>I am using a Java server page to generate a large table. The table has
>about 8 columns and could have several rows. I am using table tags as
well
>as the <th>, </th> tags to indicate header rows and the <td> and </td>
tags
>to indicate table cells and data in those cells. I can read the table ok
>using JFW but I need to know if there is any thing else that I need to
do
>to make this table accessible.
>
>One thing that has me confused is the use of style sheets. I read the
web
>accessibility guidelines and they seemed to imply that one should use
style
>sheets to create tables? Does this man that it is better not to use the
>table tags and to use style sheets instead? Or, they are talking only
about
>layout?
>
>Also, there is mention of abbreviating column headings by using
>abbreviation tags in the column headers. How necessary is this? I ask
since
>there is no need for my column headings to be abbreviated. The column
>headings are like Gross Revenue, Other Charges etc.
>
>Pranav
>

--------------------
Denis Anson, MS, OTR
Assistant Professor
College Misericordia
301 Lake St.
Dallas, PA 18612
Phone: 570-674-6413