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Results of Questionnaire ACT TF - Rule Review: All table header cells have assigned data cells

The results of this questionnaire are available to anybody. In addition, answers are sent to the following email addresses: team-wcag-act-surveys@w3.org,maryjom@us.ibm.com,wilco.fiers@deque.com

This questionnaire was open from 2020-07-23 to 2020-08-06.

6 answers have been received.

Jump to results for question:

  1. Instructions
  2. Consistency with ACT Rules Format
  3. Rule assumptions
  4. Implementation data
  5. Consistent with defined standards
  6. Remaining open issues
  7. Other questions or concerns
  8. Readiness for publishing

1. Instructions

Review the rule All table header cells have assigned data cells and answer the questions in this survey.

If there are issues with the rule, you may either open an issue in GitHub or provide details in the entry fields for the applicable question.

Summary

ChoiceAll responders
Results

Details

Responder Instructions
Wilco Fiers
Kathy Eng
Charu Pandhi
Detlev Fischer
Trevor Bostic
Mary Jo Mueller

2. Consistency with ACT Rules Format

Does the rule follow the ACT Rules Format 1.0?

Summary

ChoiceAll responders
Results
Yes 6
No. I have opened an issue in GitHub or have documented my comments below.
I don't know. My questions are documented below.

Details

Responder Consistency with ACT Rules FormatComments
Wilco Fiers Yes
Kathy Eng Yes
Charu Pandhi Yes
Detlev Fischer Yes
Trevor Bostic Yes
Mary Jo Mueller Yes

3. Rule assumptions

Are the assumptions acceptable?

Summary

ChoiceAll responders
Results
Yes 3
No. I have opened an issue in GitHub or have documented my comments below.
I don't know. My questions are documented below. 3

Details

Responder Rule assumptionsComments
Wilco Fiers I don't know. My questions are documented below. I'm not convinced that tables without td should be treated as failures of this rule.
Kathy Eng Yes
Charu Pandhi I don't know. My questions are documented below. Should this be the other way around? All data cells must have a associated header. not sure what assigned means, there is no such requirement as i see.

per H63: Using the scope attribute to associate header cells and data cells in data tables
H43: Using id and headers attributes to associate data cells with header cells in data tables
Detlev Fischer Yes
Trevor Bostic Yes
Mary Jo Mueller I don't know. My questions are documented below.

4. Implementation data

Is the implementation data correct?

Summary

ChoiceAll responders
Results
Yes 3
No. I have opened an issue in GitHub or have documented my comments below.
I don't know. My questions or comments are documented below. 2

(1 response didn't contain an answer to this question)

Details

Responder Implementation dataComments
Wilco Fiers Yes
Kathy Eng I don't know. My questions or comments are documented below. Failed Example 1 visually conveys a table header cell with no data cells in its column. I don't think this meets the assumption of this rule: This rule assumes that table header cells have a relationship conveyed through presentation with other cells within the same table.

Charu Pandhi Per the guidline these are the 2 techniques to associate headers with data cells, some of the passed examples don't do that.

H63: Using the scope attribute to associate header cells and data cells in data tables
H43: Using id and headers attributes to associate data cells with header cells in data tables
Detlev Fischer Yes
Trevor Bostic I don't know. My questions or comments are documented below. The description of failed example 3 uses "table element" but it might be more appropriate to use "semantic role of grid" instead.
Mary Jo Mueller Yes Seems that folks are finding potential issues with the examples, so once those are resolved, implementation data will have to be re-checked.

5. Consistent with defined standards

Is the rule consistent with existing accessibility standards (e.g. WCAG, ARIA, etc.)?

Summary

ChoiceAll responders
Results
Yes 4
No. I have opened an issue in GitHub or have documented my comments below.
I don't know. My questions or comments are documented below. 2

Details

Responder Consistent with defined standardsComments
Wilco Fiers Yes
Kathy Eng I don't know. My questions or comments are documented below. I don't think it is an accessibility problem if a header cell exists without an assigned data cell. I think it would be better if a rule checked that a table data cell has an assigned header cell that exists instead.
Charu Pandhi I don't know. My questions or comments are documented below. see questions above
Detlev Fischer Yes
Trevor Bostic Yes
Mary Jo Mueller Yes

6. Remaining open issues

Are there any remaining open issues for this rule that were opened prior to this review?

Summary

ChoiceAll responders
Results
Yes there are open issues that need to be resolved. I have listed them below.
Yes, there are open issues but they don't need to be resolved for the rule to be published.
No, there are no open issues. 6

Details

Responder Remaining open issuesComments
Wilco Fiers No, there are no open issues.
Kathy Eng No, there are no open issues.
Charu Pandhi No, there are no open issues.
Detlev Fischer No, there are no open issues.
Trevor Bostic No, there are no open issues.
Mary Jo Mueller No, there are no open issues.

7. Other questions or concerns

Do you have any further questions or concerns about this rule?

Summary

ChoiceAll responders
Results
Yes, I have questions or concerns, described below. 3
No, I have no further questions or concerns. 3

Details

Responder Other questions or concernsComments
Wilco Fiers Yes, I have questions or concerns, described below. 1. The applicability does not establish that the header is part of a table. Just because there is a table ancestor, doesn't mean it is part of that table. There could be any number of ancestors between the header cell and the table.

2. The part about the table being included in the accessibility tree seems unnecessary. This may be my lack of imagination, but I can't come up with a way to take the table out of the accessibility tree, without either changing the role, or also taking the header cell out of the tree. That requirement seems unnecessary.
Kathy Eng No, I have no further questions or concerns.
Charu Pandhi No, I have no further questions or concerns.
Detlev Fischer Yes, I have questions or concerns, described below. Wondering whether examples that mix native and ARIA semantic information would pass (not sure whether this is frequent in the wild - possibly grids where some native elements arE skipped).
Trevor Bostic No, I have no further questions or concerns.
Mary Jo Mueller Yes, I have questions or concerns, described below. Should the accessibility support section should be more specific regarding which ATs/browser combinations fail to support the table markup? If not in the rule, in a some table or GitHub issue so that the accessibility support information will be easier to maintain over time.

8. Readiness for publishing

Do you think this rule is ready to be published?

Summary

ChoiceAll responders
Results
Yes, it is ready to publish as-is. 1
Yes, it is ready to publish with the following changes. 1
No, it is not ready to publish and the reason is documented below. 4

Details

Responder Readiness for publishingComments
Wilco Fiers No, it is not ready to publish and the reason is documented below.
Kathy Eng No, it is not ready to publish and the reason is documented below. primary concern stated in #5 response
Charu Pandhi No, it is not ready to publish and the reason is documented below. see questions above
Detlev Fischer Yes, it is ready to publish as-is.
Trevor Bostic Yes, it is ready to publish with the following changes. Possible change to failed example 4 description..
Mary Jo Mueller No, it is not ready to publish and the reason is documented below. Seems there are a number of issues to address.

More details on responses

Non-responders

The following persons have not answered the questionnaire:

  1. Katie Haritos-Shea
  2. David MacDonald
  3. Romain Deltour
  4. Alastair Campbell
  5. Chris Loiselle
  6. Jonathan Avila
  7. Rachael Bradley Montgomery
  8. Charles Adams
  9. Daniel Montalvo
  10. Helen Burge
  11. Todd Libby
  12. Thomas Brunet
  13. Catherine Droege
  14. Suji Sreerama
  15. Shane Dittmar
  16. Nayan Padrai
  17. Sage Keriazes
  18. Shunguo Yan

Send an email to all the non-responders.

Compact view of the results / list of email addresses of the responders

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