Screen Readers and Tables

I was reading a thread on drupal the other day featuring another flame war on table-less design. I've noticed that these arguments can get very heated and not often are there any solutions. I think this is because there many myths surrounding table-less HTML and not much information about the few facts concerning this issue.

One of the most often mentioned reasons the table-less devotees is accessibility. It seems that screen readers for the blind can't understand tables that well.

But is this really true?

WebAIM are web accessibility experts who consult and train anyone who's interested and also have a good screen reader simulation you can run online.

http://www.webaim.org/

Here's a good article on the use of tables with a screen reader:
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/tables/

According to WebAIM, tables that are used for graphical layout are not the worst thing in the world to navigate around. What's more important is the ordering of the table cells and what's contained within them.




Nice accessible website

BBC have a well featured portal that gives users with disabilities access to their website. It's a good example if you planning to build an accessible website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/

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