When working on such a layout, there are a few
golden rules:
Avoid nesting tables whenever possible: Although tables can be nested like any
other HTML element, doing so makes for a web page that is slow to render and
nightmarish to navigate for a screen reader. (Obviously, there are exceptions, such
as if you need to present a table of tabular data within your layout table.)
Structure the information on the page logically: When designers use tables (particularly
those exported from a graphics package), they have a tendency to think
solely about how the page looks rather than its underlying code. However, it??™s
important to look at how the information appears in the HTML, because that??™s how
a screen reader will see it. The content should still make sense with regard to its
flow and order even if the table is removed entirely. If it doesn??™t, you need to
rework your table. (You can use Opera??™s User mode to temporarily disable tables to
find out how your information is ordered without them. Chris Pederick??™s Web
Developer toolbar for Firefox [www.chrispederick.com/work/web-developer/]
offers similar functionality via Miscellaneous ?¤ Linearize Page.) Ensure that content
is immediately available; if it isn??™t, provide a link that skips past extraneous content,
such as the masthead and navigation??”otherwise, people using screen readers will
be driven bonkers. (See www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ for more on web content
accessibility guidelines.
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