[Xerte] Re: how do I create Tables in XERTE pages
Alistair McNaught
Alistair.McNaught at HEAcademy.ac.uk
Wed Nov 9 09:46:29 GMT 2011
Interesting discussion here that relates to the whole discussion about tables and accessibility.
Forgive me if this looks like 'teaching grannies to suck eggs' (for our non-English colleagues that is one of the more weird English expressions) that is tables and accessibility raise some pedagogical questions as well as technical questions.
In one respect a table is an accessibility end solution for people (lots of us) who would find a textual description of the same information difficult to comprehend. Tables work because they plot information visually in two dimensions allowing us to isolate different variables and trends from the mass of data. For people accessing the table without the benefit of sight the added value it provides depends on several factors. These include:
* The table layout. In Thomas's example screen reader user would find the layout ideal for getting specific data on a specific apple but they would find it much harder to answer the question "which Apple has a higher sugar content?". To answer this question it would be better to swap the rows and columns so all the relevant data would be read in sequence.
[cid:image001.png at 01CC9EC2.877222F0]
* The size of the table. The screen reader user could arguably navigate a small table like the example here with relative ease but once there are more than six or so columns you are taxing the limits of short-term memory in order to do it by audio alone.
* Accessibility is not just about blind users who can't see the table because plenty of dyscalculic and dyslexic people who can see the table will also struggle to make sense of what it is try to tell them. Consequently JISC TechDis recommend that tables should have the main teaching and learning point is described in much the same way as an image would be. The description could be in the body text or a caption or using appropriate HTML tags.
* Making something technically accessible does not necessarily make it usable. If you use the text-to-speech mode to read the table above you spend a lot of time listening to "dash plus dash plus vertical bracket dash plus" etc in between the relevant data announcements.
Ultimately, an accessible Xerte table template that allow people to create a table with text-to-speech compatibility, appropriate reading order and column/row heading announcement would be a real benefit. In the meantime, any of the workarounds kindly provided by Thomas and others could be made accessible in a pedagogical sense by ensuring the teaching objectives the table was designed to show are clearly stated in
1) tool tips on images of tables or
2) in the body text descriptions.
Standards, guidelines and code have a vital contribution to make to accessibility but they don't guarantee a good user experience and good experiences for disabled users can sometimes be provided in nonstandard ways.
A
-----Original Message-----
From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Stenhouse Andy
Sent: 09 November 2011 08:40
To: thomas.rochford at cambridge-serendipity.com; Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: how do I create Tables in XERTE pages
Thanks Thomas, I've already used a screen grab but that's not
accessible, but I didn't think of doing it old school - we're all too
sophisticated for our own good :-) I'll try that.
I was planning on trying out building a table in a single cell flash
.swf and see how accessible that would be. If that goes well I'll see if
I can do a build with actionscript and buttons to create a table, but
that will not be in the near future.
Cheers
Andy Stenhouse
-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Rochford [mailto:thomas.rochford at cambridge-serendipity.com]
Sent: 08 November 2011 22:32
To: 'Xerte discussion list'
Subject: [Xerte] Re: how do I create Tables in XERTE pages
A couple of quick ideas
1) You can create the table in Excel and then use ALT-PrtSc to copy it
to an
image editor and extract the section you want. You can then embed it
into
the presentation as part of a media page.
2) You can always do it the hard old way. Try copying the data below
into a
plain text page, it will look better when you preview it!
Here is some Nutrition data for a range of popular apples
<font face="courier new" size="-1">
'----------------.-------.-----.-----'
|<b>VARIETY</b> | <b>kCALS</b> |<b>FIBRE</b>|<b>SUGAR</b>|
|----------------+-------+-----+-----|
|Braeburn | 43.2 | 1.6 |10.2 |
|----------------+-------+-----+-----|
|Cox | 44.4 | 2.0 |10.4 |
|----------------+-------+-----+-----|
|Egremont Russet | 45.0 | 1.6 |10.6 |
|----------------+-------+-----+-----|
|Gala | 43.9 | 1.3 |10.3 |
|----------------+-------+-----+-----|
|Pink Lady | 44.5 | 1.6 |10.5 |
'----------------'-------'-----'-----'
</font>
This shows one way in which you can use a fixed font such as courier to
create the appearance of a table. You need to use a text editor such as
notepad++ to create the basic table, otherwise you will take ages to
line up
the text
I guess you might be able to use print2flash as well. For some animated
examples you could capture some video using e.g. Captivate or make an
animated gif and convert that to flash (Animated gif images do not work
in
Xerte - at least they didn't use to!)
Kindest Regards,
Thomas
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
--
From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Stenhouse
Andy
Sent: 08 November 2011 08:56
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: how do I create Tables in XERTE pages
That's not very accessible. Surely if Xerte can see html in a page it
can be
made to see the <table> tags?
Cheers
Andy Stenhouse
From: Julian Tenney [mailto:Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk]
Sent: 07 November 2011 16:06
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: how do I create Tables in XERTE pages
It's probably best to create the tables in a different package and then
get
an image, or a screenshot from that,
J
From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Stenhouse
Andy
Sent: 07 November 2011 09:38
To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: [Xerte] how do I create Tables in XERTE pages
Hi,
I'm am fairly new to XERTE and am starting to use it in some modules, I
am
trying to encourage academics to use it instead of their PowerPoints;
for
its added functionality, and it's pretty easy to use, so I am finding
out
what is readily accessible to non-coders.
I am trying to create a table in a text page (Block off text with a
table
underneath) and can't find a way to do it.
I tried the drawing tool and besides being too long-winded I found the
text
was displaying vertically and spilling over the edges of the box. I next
tried the columns page but that looks awfull as a table (and you can't
colspan) and then I tried writing the HTML in a text page but that
didn't
work.
Could someone please tell me how this should be done please.
Regards
Andy Stenhouse
Learning Technologist
School of Health
University of Northampton
Tel: 01604 893539
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