A month ago, Laura Carlson clarified the need for @summary: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 06:57:42 -0500 http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Jun/0185.html
> In the absence of a summary, the non-visual user must investigate the > table carefully and fully, merely in order to ascertain whether or not > it is the correct table, what information the table contains, if the > information in the table is germane, how many rows by how many columns > to expect, the flow of the table, etc. [And later discussion suggested that may it really ought to have been named @datastructure instead of @summary] What information should the summary contain that should *not* be in the headers or the caption? Would the @summary purpose be better fulfilled by just ensuring that it was easy to read the headers as a sort a preview? [I realize that not all tables are properly marked up with <th> -- but I'm assuming (incorrectly?) that authors who can't get that right are unlikely to get an invisible attribute right anyhow.] [My apologies to those whose Cc status I wasn't sure about.] -jJ
