Re: [office-accessibility] tables and latest ODF spec

[Richard Schwerdtfeger <schwer@us.ibm.com>]

ODF TC:

In Pete's review of the current internal TC draft of the ODF 1.2 specification it is unclear that native table support has been added to presentations in ODF 1.2. This is something
the accessibility SC had asked for in 1.1 but was being deferred until 1.2.

Native table support in presentations may be indicated in the schema but that has not been provided in the current release of the specification.
Since access to structural information is so important, especially for tables, would members of the TC indicate when this will be provided
for in the 1.2 specification?

Pete,I responded to your note below. Thanks for the analysis.

Thank you,
Rich



Rich Schwerdtfeger
Distinguished Engineer, SWG Accessibility Architect/Strategist
Chair, IBM Accessibility Architecture Review Board
blog: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/schwer

Pete Brunet/Austin/IBM@IBMUS wrote on 05/09/2008 05:29:10 PM:

>
> In the v7-02 ODF spec at http://www.oasis-open.
> org/committees/download.php/28121/OpenDocument-v1.2-v7-02.odt I
> found the following items of interest to our group:
>
> 18.921 table:is-sub-table (Note the last sentence from the editor.)
> If a table cell only contains a single table but no paragraphs or
> other content, this table can be specified as subtable. It then
> occupies the whole cell and no other content can appear in this cell.
> The borders of a subtable merge with the borders of the cell that it
> resides in. A subtable does not have its own style. A subtable is
> essentially a container for some additional table rows that
> integrate seamlessly with the parent table.
> A nested table is turned into a subtable with the attribute table:
> is-sub-table that is attached to the table element. A nested table
> that is not a specified to be a subtable appears as a table within a
> table, that is, it has borders distinct from those of the parent
> cell and respects the padding of the parent cell.
> Ed. Note: The examples have been removed, since they implied that
> is-sub-table is appropriate for simulating row- and colspan.
>
> Appendix E.3 Tables in Presentations
> Users importing non-OpenDocument slides that contain tables need
> access to the table structure via their assistive technology.
> Therefore tables imported into an OpenDocument application from
> another file format must have their structure preserved, and when
> saved as OpenDocument should be saved as as embedded spreadsheets.
>
> Is  there anything else I should look for?
>

Yes, what this tells me is that the current 1.2 specification, as written, does
not clearly articulate that native table support is in presentations. What this says is that in order
to render a table you essentially need to do what was done in 1.1 which is to treat the
table as an embedded spreadsheet (such as through OLE embedding) which would be accessible.
This was inconsistent with what we had been told should be in 1.2. What makes this more difficult is
we don't have a schema to verify. The Schema should indicate if native table support is provided.

> p.s. The link to our guidelines is bad here:
>

If we had native table support there should be no need for this. If native table support is not added then I agree
we would need to correct the link.
 
> Appendix E.4 Further Guidelines
> Additional, non-normative Accessibility Guidelines are available at:
> http://docs.oasis-open.org/office/office-accessibility/guidelines.
>
> Pete Brunet
>                                                                          
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