pre element to markup
tabular informationSee Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria for important information about the usage of these informative techniques and how they relate to the normative WCAG 2.0 success criteria. The Applicability section explains the scope of the technique, and the presence of techniques for a specific technology does not imply that the technology can be used in all situations to create content that meets WCAG 2.0.
HTML and XHTML
This failure relates to:
This document describes a failure caused by use of the HTML pre
element to markup tabular information. The pre element
preserves only visual formatting. If the pre element is used to
markup tabular information, the visually implied logical relationships
between the table cells and the headers are lost if the user cannot see the
screen or if the visual presentation changes significantly.
Instead, the HTML table element is intended to present tabular
data. Assistive technologies use the structure of an HTML table to present
data to the user in a logical manner. This structure is not available when
using the pre element.
Example Code:
<pre>
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
8:00-
9:00 Meet with Sam
9:00-
10:00 Dr. Williams Sam again Leave for San Antonio
</pre>
Example Code:
<pre>
CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 3
W
R
M R E I
A . L T
M L R B E
I A Y E -
K N R I
E G T N
----- ----- -----
0001 TOWN OF ALBION WDS 1-2 22 99 0
0002 TOWN OF BERRY WDS 1-2 52 178 0
0003 TOWN OF BLACK EARTH 16 49 0
0004 TOWN OF BLOOMING GROVE WDS 1-3 44 125 0
0005 TOWN OF BLUE MOUNDS 33 117 0
0006 TOWN OF BRISTOL WDS 1-3 139 639 1
0007 TOWN OF BURKE WDS 1-4 80 300 0
0008 TOWN OF CHRISTIANA WDS 1-2 22 50 0
</pre>
No resources available for this technique.
Check to see if the pre element is used
For each occurrence of the pre element, check
whether the enclosed information is tabular.
If check #2 is true, then this failure condition applies and the content fails the Success Criterion.