39
54
7
Conclusion and Recommendations
Given the variety of techniques for visible and accessible formatting, which one should you
choose? Here are some evaluation criteria for accessible HTML tables, with the most important
first.
1. First, the HTML code must conform to a standard for accessible HTML code. The
acceptability of the code is
not
judged by the success with which it can be read by any
particular screen reader product, or version of screen reader product. Acceptability is
judged by measurement against a standard for accessible HTML coding practices.
2. The code must produce an acceptable visual presentation as well as an accessible
presentation. We cannot adopt a set of coding practices that produces tables that are
acceptable to the vision-impaired members of our user communities, but unacceptable to
the sighted members.
3. It must be feasible for human beings (using whatever support technology is available) to
create HTML tables. Athough many statistical tables are generated from databases by
software programs, many are not. It must be possible for statistical analysts to create
hand-crafted tables for special purposes.
4. The markup must be supported by the current generation of screen-reader technology.
5. In order to minimize download time, compact markup is preferred to verbose markup.
One of the most important considerations is the visual appearance of statistical tables. The three
visual formatting techniques that we have discussed — nested stub headers, indented stub
headers using cell control, and indented stub headers using CSS control -- all produce slightly
different results. If one of those visible formats is required, or acceptable, or unacceptable for
your organization, then that will have a decisive effect on your decision.
In most organizations, nested stub headers are simply unacceptable. So, for most organizations,
that option can be eliminated immediately.
Most statistical organizations publish a mix of tabular data. Some table are generated
automatically from database data, while other tables are hand-crafted by statisticians and used in
analytic reports. If your organization publishes such a mix of tables, then you will need a format
that is simple enough to be hand-coded by a human being. The formats that use cell control tend
to be complicated. Using ROWSPAN is very difficult. COLSPAN is less difficult, and just using
empty cells (without ROWSPAN or COLSPAN) is less complicated, although still cumbersome.
In comparison, using CSS to control the stub margins is extremely simple.
Of the three accessibility techniques that we have examined — the HEADERS algorithm, the
SCOPE algorithm, and the BASIC algorithm — neither the HEADERS nor the SCOPE
algorithm seems very attractive. Marking up a table with HEADERS and ID attributes is time-