HomeCheckpoint 1.21 - Mobile-PDA
Tables have not been used for layout
WCAG 1.0 Priority 2
WCAG Guideline 5. Create tables that transform gracefully.
Web page structure and presentation of information must be kept separate in the web page. This can be done with the use of CSS. HTML should not be used to manipulate the presentation of the information on the browser.
Requirement
Tables have not been used for layout
Recommendation
Tables also do not render at all until the entire table has downloaded. Along with the large amount of HTML required to create the table, when tables are used for layout purposes only, the user can experience greatly increased load times. The power of the rendering engine within mobile devices is very small compared to a desktop computer, thus causing noticable delays in producing the page.
Tables also do not work well on limited size screens and may result in the user having to scroll horizontally to read them. Tables that include navigational links may result in the user having both to scroll horizontally and vertically to see possible navigational choices. As such, tables should only be used for display of purely data-focused information and not as an aid to positioning HTML elements or information on the screen, and care should be taken when designing tables.
Use <div> elements around content and use for presentation styling or use a definition list <dl> to display data.
Checking Tool
View the source code of the web page for any <table> elements.
Information Source
The original source of this information is located on the W3C web site (www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-TECHS/#tech-avoid-table-for-layout)
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