Web Accessibility Coordination (WAC)

Tables

Make sure tables will be read in the correct order by non-graphical browsers

Used for Page Layout
1. Page layout tables visually format images, text, and other information on the page such as a navigation bar, or a newspaper page with stories, links, and images. Each cell in a layout table is normally independent and can be viewed on its own.
2. If you use a table for layout purposes, make sure the table makes sense when it is linearized. This means that the cells are read in the order in which they appear in the HTML source code. This is not necessarily the order in which the text is laid out on the screen.
Used for Data Presentation
1. Data tables present relational data such as a bus schedule, a comparison of regional sales figures, or a listing of employee contact information.
2. Provide information about the table by using appropriate table markup (e.g., markup headers on data tables using the TH element; use the SUMMARY attribute; etc.).
3. For data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers, use appropriate markup to identify those divisions.

Complex Table Inspector: ECMAScript-based Favelet that reveals hidden table information such as the scope, header, and abbr attributes