Accessibility: Table Summary

[Brian Cryer]

I posted this question recently to microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.vb but
didn't get any answer. I'm hoping that someone here will be able to help me.

I'm working on a project using VB.NET where the customer is very fussy about
accessibility. One of the requirements that I'm trying to meet is that
tables should have a summary, for example (and I've taken this from
http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_20_providing_a_summary_for_tables.html):

<table border="0" cellspacing="4" cellpadding="0" summary="Monthly calendar
with links to each day's posts">

The property page for my table has a summary field, I've put text in and
within visual studio if I look at the html I can see the summary there, but
when I run it in my browser the summary information gets stripped off and
doesn't appear in the html.

For those that don't know, the idea of include a summary is that screen
readers for the blind or partially sighted can pick up the summary and read
it. It doesn't make any change to the visual appearance of the page.

Anyone know what I should be doing to get this to appear in the html?

Any ideas much appreciated.

thanks in advance,

Brian.

www.cryer.co.uk/brian

 

[clintonG]

Google: "modify html"+"asp.net"

The first returned item is a discussion I've had noting there are many
others related to responding to 1.1 accessibility work-arounds. Apparently
2.0 emits section508 compliant HTML.

<%= Clinton Gallagher
METROmilwaukee (sm) "A Regional Information Service"
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://metromilwaukee.com/
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/

 

[Brian Cryer]

Its nice to know that I'm not alone in facing these issues. In my case its
the W3C Web Accessibility guidelines I need to work to, but I believe this
is similar in scope to section 508.

I don't want to go the route of a custom control in this instance (I will
have to to get round other issues elsewhere), because I think implementing
my own version of a table could be a great deal of work for something that I
feel ought to be straight forward. I may need to accept that the tools just
work against me in this case. In the long run it will be good if .net 2
solves the problem, but I can't wait.

Its a horrible kludge but I may go the route of overriding the Render
function, parsing the output html and adding in the extra fields then. That
sort of kludge would work where I only have one or two tables on a page
(which I do) but wouldn't be viable for the likes of the label which you had
the issue about.

Incidentally, your problem with the label (which I know you've already got a
work around for), I found that using a system.web.ui.webcontrols.label did
the trick for me. It just looks naff in the ide because the labels display
as [Label "label1"] instead of their text.

Anyway, I hadn't considered googling for "modify html" + "asp.net", nor had
I thought of googling for asp.net + 508, I've been too focused on W3C AA,
but the issues are the same.

Thanks for your input. I appreciate it - and it has been helpful, its given
me more avenues to research to see if I can find an answer.

regards,

Brian.

 

[clintonG]

No, you're not alone. Thanks for the tip to use
system.web.ui.webcontrols.label. I'm such a nube ;-)

The UK now apparently mandates public websites to be accessible but to what
extent I remain uncertain. The context and scope of the issue can be
followed in this article [1]. In the US, the white collar criminal and
corrupt law enforcement official New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (he
is an accomplice to crimes related to 9-11) has recently tested the
viability of prosecution [2].

My background working as an architect concerned with accessibility in the
built environment suggests the US government will only get serious about
accessibility on the web after they can determine how to avoid making it
possible to comply without receiving a tax break.

Good luck to you...

<%= Clinton Gallagher

[1] http://www.webdesignandmastery.com/articles/legality-article.shtml
[2] http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2004/aug/aug19a_04.html

Its nice to know that I'm not alone in facing these issues. In my case its
the W3C Web Accessibility guidelines I need to work to, but I believe this
is similar in scope to section 508.

I don't want to go the route of a custom control in this instance (I will
have to to get round other issues elsewhere), because I think implementing
my own version of a table could be a great deal of work for something that
I feel ought to be straight forward. I may need to accept that the tools
just work against me in this case. In the long run it will be good if .net
2 solves the problem, but I can't wait.

Its a horrible kludge but I may go the route of overriding the Render
function, parsing the output html and adding in the extra fields then.
That sort of kludge would work where I only have one or two tables on a
page (which I do) but wouldn't be viable for the likes of the label which
you had the issue about.

Incidentally, your problem with the label (which I know you've already got
a work around for), I found that using a system.web.ui.webcontrols.label
did the trick for me. It just looks naff in the ide because the labels
display as [Label "label1"] instead of their text.

Anyway, I hadn't considered googling for "modify html" + "asp.net", nor
had I thought of googling for asp.net + 508, I've been too focused on W3C
AA, but the issues are the same.

Thanks for your input. I appreciate it - and it has been helpful, its
given me more avenues to research to see if I can find an answer.

regards,

Brian.

Google: "modify html"+"asp.net"

The first returned item is a discussion I've had noting there are many
others related to responding to 1.1 accessibility work-arounds.
Apparently 2.0 emits section508 compliant HTML.

<%= Clinton Gallagher
METROmilwaukee (sm) "A Regional Information Service"
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://metromilwaukee.com/
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/