Help:borders on and off

[Thomas Dowling]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib at library.berkeley.edu
> [mailto:web4lib at library.berkeley.edu]On Behalf Of Heather Grady
> Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 1998 10:18 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: Re: Help:borders on and off
>
>
> I created a similar table for our library
> (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/alx/subjectq.htm)  One thing to
> keep in mind
> however, is the importance of accessibility.  Does your page have a text
> only alternative?  Some browsers (like lynx) can't read tables...another
> issue is the translation of web pages for hearing and
> physically impaired.
> I think the information in the table needs the borders, without them I
> think the page would look a bit empty.

I have a couple of quibbles with this.  First, as has already been pointed
out, up-to-date versions of lynx handle tables about as well as possible
in an 80x24 environment.  Second, and more to the point, most people who
really work with accessibility issues (and most of the visually impaired
web surfers I've seen commenting on the issue) do NOT want alternate
document versions that are text-only, table-free, etc.  They argue instead
that there should be a single version of the document, crafted in such a
way that it can be viewed without images, without javascript, without any
other technologies that may impede accessibility.  That means things like
religious use of ALT text (and longdesc links as soon as they're supported
in browsers); serious attention to NOSCRIPT and NOFRAMES elements; and
tables for tabular layout, not for page design hacks.

<URL:http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH> for further information.  This
document is a draft, but seems to reflect a broad consensus on its main
points.


Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu