This Wiki page is edited by participants of the HTML Accessibility Task Force. It does not necessarily represent consensus and it may have incorrect information or information that is not supported by other Task Force participants, WAI, or W3C. It may also have some very useful information.
Table Summary Needs Assessment
Table Summary: Needs Assessment
To get from multiple proposals to one proposal that we can all support it may be best to go back to basic requirements and assess task force members attitudes.
Reach consensus in steps. To narrow solution options, first agree on a table summary's functional requirements and needs.
Likert scale survey questions can be a useful tool for gathering this type of information.
Possible questions
1. A summary attribute is a nonvisual explicitly associated, programmatic mechanism to provide a table with a summary for users who cannot see the visual rendering of the table.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
2. A summary attribute serves a very specific use case for people who are blind.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
3. The summary attribute's functionality is needed in HTML5.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
4. Providing a summary visually is extra verbiage that most authors/designers would be reluctant to include visually. (Reasoning could include redundancy, marketing requirements, etc.)
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
5. It is generally better to provide concise table summary information than a table summary long description.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
6. It is currently possible to provide a long description of a data table without a coining a new element.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
7. It is currently possible to provide a long description of a data table without using the details element.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
8. It is currently possible to provide a long description of a data table without using a second caption element.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
9. Providing element content for table summary information can be accomplished with aria-describedBy to point to that content (which might be in the caption element content, or might be somewhere else).
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
10. A new summary element should be coined.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
11. It's not easy to categorize what works best for people with cognitive disabilities as it depends on their mode of learning.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
12. Providing text that explains a table's structure that is visually obvious is more likely to confuse than help people with cognitive disabilities.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
14. User agents providing an option to reveal the content of the summary attribute would provide a method for developers who want a tool to check summary text and keep it up to date.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
15. Good examples and author guidance on table summary are needed.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
16. Authors who use the summary attribute to optimize for accessibility should not be penalized by validator warnings.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale:
17. The table summary attribute should be removed from the obsolete but conforming section of HTML5, so that it does not trigger a validator warning.
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
Comments/rationale: