Description Josh Martin 2007-04-30 12:06:59 EDT

It would be very easy to enable basic 508-compliance in BIRT to assist blind users.  Adding a few attributes to tables cells would accomplish it.  The official request would be to allow users to specify the scope, id, and headers attribute for any table cell (td or th tag), just like they can specify the width or style today.

Adding the scope attribute would solve 80% of the cases (possible values being "row" or "col").  Complex tables require the headers and id attributes.  There's a short article about 508 and table layout at the link below.  I'll put a quick excerpt as well if it helps.  I think this  would be a great new feature, and please let me know if I can help in any way!

    http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/tables.html#h-11.4

    - For a given header cell, the scope attribute
    - tells the screen reader the data cells for which
    - this header provides information. Authors may
    - choose to use this attribute instead of
    - headers according to which is more convenient;
    - the two attributes fulfill the same function.
    - The headers attribute is generally needed when
    - headers are placed in irregular positions with
    - respect to the data they apply to.

Thanks!
Josh