Re: [office] Re: [office-accessibility] Re: [office] use cases for"is-subtable" attribute

[Andreas J Guelzow <aguelzow@math.concordia.ab.ca>]

On Mon, 2007-09-07 at 17:41 -0500, Richard Schwerdtfeger wrote:
> Lars,
> 
> The bottom line is a blind user is navigating a spreadsheet and when
> you drop in a subtable the reference to the cells does not match the
> underlying header. Blind users use the grid structure and headings to
> maintain a point of reference. When that is not consistent the user
> gets lost. We ran into this problem working with freedom scientific
> and our ODF 1.1 support by the Notes 8 Productivity Editors. The JAWS
> developer, who is blind, got lost and asked that we correct the
> issue. 
> 
> Please see section 3.3 of this document. It is pretty self
> explanatory. Here you will see the use .B2.B1 under a row header of
> C1. The user is lost.

If this is a problem, then the right solution is for the _interface_ to
fix the numbering however is appropriate. 

On the other hand if you drop into a cell that is part of an array
formula in a spread sheet (say the right cell of a pair of cells
containing the result of a LINEST calculation), it is very useful to
know that one is inside an array result, specifically in which cell of
that array one is located. A blind user should probably be warned by the
interface in those circumstances that one is entering a subtable. In
fact every user shoud probably be advised of that fact. Most interfaces
currently let the user guess which cell area makes up the subtable. OOo
for example doesn't even indicate anywhere in which cell of the array
one is currently located.

Andreas

-- 
"Liberty consists less in acting according to
one's own pleasure, than in not being subject 
to the will and pleasure of other people. It 
consists also in our not subjecting the wills 
of other people to our own."  Rousseau


Prof. Dr. Andreas J. Guelzow
Dept. of Mathematical & Computing Sciences
Concordia University College of Alberta