Question about accessible tables . . .

Question about accessible tables . . . (Full Version)

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Nicole -> Question about accessible tables . . . (3/6/2007 3:38:25)

What do you guys use to make certain that a table is being read out properly be a screen reader?

I thought that by correctly offering a table summary, caption and using <th> for the top row, the table would be read out with the first column entry followed by the first colum's <th>, then the content of cell 1, then the <th> of column 2, then the contents of cell 2 etc.

Admittedly I've just checked using the Firefox Extension "Speak-It", which probably has some flaws, but I was surprised that it read my table out most confusingly. Here is the html for my table:

            <table class="sevencolumn" summary="This table shows the practice times for all squads during Fall" width="100%">
         
         	<caption>Fall Practice Times</caption>
           
           		<tr>
            		<th class="seven1">Squad</th>
            		<th class="seven2">Monday</th>
            		<th class="seven3">Tuesday</th>
            		<th class="seven4">Wednesday</th>
            		<th class="seven5">Thursday</th>
            		<th class="seven6">Friday</th>
					<th class="seven7">Saturday</th>

           		</tr>
           		<tr>
            		<td class="seven1">White<br />45 minute practice<br />Choose any 2</td>
            		<td class="seven2">3.40pm<br />4.30pm<br />5.20pm<br />6.10pm</td>
            		<td class="seven3">3.40pm<br />4.30pm<br />5.20pm<br />6.10pm</td>
            		<td class="seven4">3.40pm<br />4.30pm<br />5.20pm<br />6.10pm</td>
            		<td class="seven5">3.40pm<br />4.30pm<br />5.20pm<br />6.10pm</td>
            		<td class="seven6">3.40pm<br />4.30pm<br />5.20pm</td>
            		<td class="seven7">No Practice</td>
           		</tr>
           		
           		<tr>
            		<td class="seven1">Red<br />1 hour practice</td>
            		<td class="seven2">6.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven3">6.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven4">6.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven5">6.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven6">6.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven7">10.00am</td>
           		</tr>
           		
           		<tr>
            		<td class="seven1">Black<br />1.5 hour practice</td>
            		<td class="seven2">4.30pm</td>
            		<td class="seven3">4.30pm</td>
            		<td class="seven4">4.30pm</td>
            		<td class="seven5">4.30pm</td>
            		<td class="seven6">4.30pm</td>
            		<td class="seven7">8.30am</td>
           		</tr>
           		
           		<tr>
            		<td class="seven1">Senior<br />2 hour practice</td>
            		<td class="seven2">4.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven3">4.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven4">4.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven5">4.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven6">4.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven7">8.00am</td>
           		</tr>
           		
           		<tr>
            		<td class="seven1">National<br />2.25 hour practice</td>
            		<td class="seven2">4.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven3">4.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven4">4.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven5">4.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven6">4.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven7">8.00am</td>
           		</tr>
           		
           		<tr>
            		<td class="seven1">Masters / Gold<br />1 hour practice</td>
            		<td class="seven2">7.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven3">7.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven4">7.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven5">7.00pm</td>
            		<td class="seven6">No Practice</td>
            		<td class="seven7">No Practice</td>
           		</tr>
           		
          	</table><!-- end sevencolumn -->

One thing I did find with "Speak-It", is that it read out all times like:

4.30pm - four point three zero p m

except for the last two rows where it pronounced it as 4.30pm?

jaybee -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/6/2007 4:04:09)
Speak it just reads out the text, adaptive software tends to have a bit more intelligence and will think about how it reads the table. What you've done is correct, the only other thing you can do is have row headers as well if it makes things any clearer. As far as times go, yes, readers do tend to do that but again assistive software is different and it all depends on how the user has it set up. You can force the read with Aural Styles but I doubt Speak it would have a clue what to do with them.

Nicole -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/6/2007 4:30:48)
Thanks Jaybee, I'm trying the row header at the moment, first attempt gave the same result though, still trying. . .

jaybee -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/6/2007 4:36:25)
Yes it will. Bottom line is, speak it is not assistive software. It doesn't work in anywhere near the same way as Jaws. Speak it is purely there so you can get a rough idea of page order and readability, nothing more. If you want a better overview then use Opera Voice.

Nicole -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/6/2007 5:16:26)
I didn't have Opera Voice set up and have just tried to set it up and it's not working for some reason. Will look into that in a sec, and btw, Opera is doing some funny things with the overall text size on my page so I'll try and figure that out a bit later too. A subsequent question though: I don't know if anyone has copied my code and tried it in a browser, but in the first column I have a heading called "Red" etc, and then "one hour practice" underneath. "Red" is the swimming squad name and the "1 hour practice" is a subsequent comment that I'd prefer to appera not bold, but as I've just made the first column all <th>, all text in that column appears bold. I've tried introducing a <span> with font-size "normal", but it just doesn't seem to change it. The appearance I'm trying to get in the left column is: Red 1 hour session Does anyone know if I can have this appearance in a column using <th>?

jaybee -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/6/2007 5:29:13)
Take bold off th and use span or p and apply bold to that.

Donkey -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/6/2007 11:46:27)
It's reading your times wrong because you used a period instead of a colon e.g. 04:30 not 4.30 it will then read it as a time.

jaybee -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/6/2007 12:17:15)
Good point! or rather good colon!

Donkey -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/6/2007 13:55:00)
quote: rather good colon! The secret is plenty of roughage. [;)]

Nicole -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/6/2007 16:10:46)
Thanks Donkey.

jaybee -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/30/2007 5:02:42)
For info............... JAWS screen reader will read a time correctly if a.m. or p.m. is included. For example, 6.30 is read as a number with a decimal fraction, whereas 6.30pm is read as a time.

Tailslide -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/30/2007 7:05:31)
Jaybee - What about 24 hour clock time? 18:00 for instance?

jaybee -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/30/2007 7:50:39)
quote: 18:00 Last time I checked 18:00 was read as 18 hundred but 18.00 is read as 18 point 00 I'll double check it when I fire Jaws up next time.

Tailslide -> RE: Question about accessible tables . . . (3/30/2007 10:34:06)
Ta

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