Terrence Wood wrote:
The best web standards thing I learnt in 2005 is:
How to best use the summary attribute for screen reader users:
The summary attribute is best used to describe the structure of the table,
not to summarise it's content. A longer summary is better according to
actual screen reader user testing.
How do you know if your summary works, if you don't have any screen reader
users to test with?
You need two people, someone to read the summary and someone to draw the
table. Read your summary aloud and see what the other person draws. If the
result resembles your table then you are on the right track =)
Example from complex financial table:
summary="There are 8 columns. Column 1 names the appropriation and labels
the row or rowgroup. Columns 2 through 5 report the numbers for 2004/5,
where column 2 is Budgeted Annual, column 3 is Budgeted Other, column 4 is
Estimated Actual Annual, column 5 is Estimated Actual Other. Columns 6
through 7 report the numbers for 2005/6 where column 6 is Vote Annual,
column 7 is Vote Other. Column 8 contains narrative on the scope of the
appropriation. Rows are grouped by appropriation type."
Coming in late on this:
As per the spec
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#adef-summary
"summary = text [CS]
This attribute provides a summary of the table's purpose and
structure for user agents rendering to non-visual media such as speech
and Braille."
So I'd say it's a combination of *purpose* and structure, and I'd say
that it should be in that order as well. Assuming a screenreader user
gets the summary, they'd presumably want to know what the table is for
first (so they can quickly decide whether or not they're interested in
it or want to skip it) before getting a whole "column one does this,
column two does that" structural description. So, something like
"Earnings for Blahblah Ltd in 2005, broken down by month. The first
column has the months, the second column has the earnings for that
particular month" or something along those lines...(yes, I suck at
examples, but you get the idea)
--
Patrick H. Lauke
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http://webstandards.org/
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