The following consensus was reached by Protocols and Formats Working Group during its teleconference of Wednesday, 3 June 2009: http://www.w3.org/2009/06/03-pf-minutes.html
We request the table summary tag be restored in HTML 5 as per previous communications: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2008Aug/0213.html Rationale: Summary serves a need, and serves it well. It is familiar to users. It is supported in browsers. It is properly utilized on many web sites which strive to be accessible. * If it didn't exist, we'd need to invent it. Indeed, such alternative * approaches as have been proposed constitute a "reinvention" of * summary. PF wishes to move on to address accessibility concerns in * areas, such as canvas, where no good solution currently exists rather * than reinventing summary. * We reject the argument that summary should be removed from the HTML * specification because it is not implemented on most web sites. We note * that accessibility is poorly supported on most web sites. The wider * web is not an example of good practice. * We need summary for backward compatibility. * We note that summary is often used as a technique for accessibility * support where governmental regulations require governmental web sites to be * accessible. An example is the U.S. Government's Social Security * Administration (SSA) pages as SSA conforms to its "Section 508." * mandate: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/web.php http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/1194.22.htm#(g) * If summary is removed, U.S. Government web sites, might find it more * difficult to conform to HTML 5. We further note that Section 508 * regulations apply to U.S. state and local governments, and that * similar accessibility requirements are emerging in Canada, the U.K., * the E.U., Australia, and elsewhere. * Restoring summary in HTML 5 would not, in our understanding, negatively * impact HTML 5 in any way. Janina Sajka, Phone: +1.202.595.7777; sip:jan...@capitalaccessibility.com Partner, Capital Accessibility LLC http://CapitalAccessibility.Com Marketing the Owasys 22C talking screenless cell phone in the U.S. and Canada Learn more at http://ScreenlessPhone.Com Chair, Open Accessibility jan...@a11y.org Linux Foundation http://a11y.org Chair, Protocols & Formats Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/wai/pf World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
