Well, I'm Canadian, but if I were to put myself into the F1 anology, I'd have to say that I'm more of a Zsolt Baumgartner. Still, I can understand full well why screen readers can't attach proper meaning to layout done entirely with tables, and why no attempt to "improve" the software is going to get around the fundamental difficulties.
Apparently Alex (who is so famous he need not have a last name) doesn't realise how much intelligence goes into deciphering the written word -- how our perceptions are shaped by experience and convention, and how adaptive humans are when assessing the visual design of a page. All one really need do is take a look at a few of the "cutting edge" magazine designs out there, where normal font, case, decoration and colour expectations are not met for artistic reasons. One actually needs to school oneself in reading these things. If there is no formal connection between design and meaning (something that semantic markup and CSS does that tables cannot do), then asking a computer to convey the meaning of the content to someone who cannot see and interpret the visual cues is asking an awful lot.
Table-controlled layout is a BAD THING, and should be avoided. Unfortunately, in many cases it CAN'T be avoided without degenerating the graphic intent of the page.
Well, I'm Canadian, but if I were to put myself into the F1 anology, I'd have to say that I'm more of a Zsolt Baumgartner. Still, I can understand full well why screen readers can't attach proper meaning to layout done entirely with tables, and why no attempt to "improve" the software is going to get around the fundamental difficulties.
Apparently Alex (who is so famous he need not have a last name) doesn't realise how much intelligence goes into deciphering the written word -- how our perceptions are shaped by experience and convention, and how adaptive humans are when assessing the visual design of a page. All one really need do is take a look at a few of the "cutting edge" magazine designs out there, where normal font, case, decoration and colour expectations are not met for artistic reasons. One actually needs to school oneself in reading these things. If there is no formal connection between design and meaning (something that semantic markup and CSS does that tables cannot do), then asking a computer to convey the meaning of the content to someone who cannot see and interpret the visual cues is asking an awful lot.
Table-controlled layout is a BAD THING, and should be avoided. Unfortunately, in many cases it CAN'T be avoided without degenerating the graphic intent of the page.