In an ideal world, web developers would never use tables to layout pages. But we don't live in an ideal world, and web developers do organize web pages visually using tables. 

I have noticed that Jaws 4.5 does a pretty good job of navigating through layout tables. I am curious whether people who rely on screen readers have noticed this. Or are layout tables continue to be a bane. 

I have been asked to comment on a proposed web standard. The standard mandates that layout tables should only use the TABLE, TR, and TD elements; and most interestingly, that the summary attribute always be used with TABLE, and that it always say two words: "layout table." (Jaws and HPR both detect the summary attribute; the current version of Window-Eyes does not.)

Screen reader users: would table attribute summary="layout table" be an accessibility enhancement for you?

Alan



Alan Cantor
Project Manager
Strategic e-Government Implementation
e-Government, OCCS
416-212-1152
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