[Web4lib] Gracefully degrades to..?

[Hankinson, Andrew]

Until you are blind or otherwise sight impaired and need to use a
specialized stylesheet or screen-reader, you likely would not see the
appeal of using CSS for layout and HTML for marking up content.
However, for public libraries especially, maintaining an accessible
website for all walks of life should be a top priority.

Taken from our friends at the W3C:

   "* 5.3 Do not use tables for layout unless the table makes sense when
linearized. Otherwise, if the table does not make sense, provide an
alternative equivalent (which may be a linearized version). [Priority 2]
    * 5.4 If a table is used for layout, do not use any structural
markup for the purpose of visual formatting. [Priority 2]

Authors should use style sheets for layout and positioning. However,
when it is necessary to use a table for layout, the table must linearize
in a readable order. When a table is linearized, the contents of the
cells become a series of paragraphs (e.g., down the page) one after
another. Cells should make sense when read in row order and should
include structural elements (that create paragraphs, headings, lists,
etc.) so the page makes sense after linearization.

Also, when using tables to create a layout, do not use structural markup
to create visual formatting. For example, the TH (table header) element,
is usually displayed visually as centered, and bold. If a cell is not
actually a header for a row or column of data, use style sheets or
formatting attributes of the element."

Source: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-HTML-TECHS/#tables-layout

So, while the CSS-layout mafia may be a little bold in their advocation,
they at least have a leg to stand on. 

Personally speaking, once I got CSS, I would never go back.  The ability
to change the look of an entire site with minimal code changes is a
godsend, and it more than pays for the extra investment of time, both in
learning and coding.  Your sites are more flexible, can deal with more
platforms / screen sizes / browsers, and, like it or not, it is the way
the web is going.

-a

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Taylor [mailto:mike at miketaylor.org.uk] 
Sent: May 24, 2006 12:43 PM
To: Jennifer Heise
Cc: Hankinson, Andrew; Web4Lib
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Gracefully degrades to..?

Jennifer Heise writes:
 > Can you recommend a good book on using CSS for positioning that  >
DOES degrade gracefully? I've really avoided using CSS-based layout  >
myself because I've seen it degrade horribly so many times, and I  >
don't want to take a chance on my users seeing all the text piled  > on
top of each other.

I quite agree.  I know that people go on about how great it is that you
can use CSS for layout, but I've never seen the appeal, and I prefer to
use tables for layout and CSS for, well, style.  The result of course is
that my sites _do_ degrade gracefully -- much more gracefully that
CSS-layout sides do on browsers that don't implement CSS properly (which
is not rare).

So I think you should quietly ignore the advice of the CSS-layout mafia,
and lay your pages out using good old-fashioned tables, at least for the
next few years.

 _/|_
___________________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor  <mike at miketaylor.org.uk>
http://www.miketaylor.org.uk )_v__/\  Live fast, Die old.