Link to previous pageLink to home pageLink to next page

Designing Accessible Web Pages

Use frames and tables sparingly.
 

Frames:

Frames are currently considered inaccessible page presentation. In time, this may change as browsers handle them with greater sophistication and the screen-readers can more intelligently map the screen. Until that happens, avoid using frames, but if you must, title each frame to facilitate identification and navigation.

Example:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Frameset//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>A frameset document</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<FRAMESET cols="10%, 90%" title=”University Book Store”>
<FRAME src="nav.html" title=”Navigational links”>
<FRAME src="doc.html" title=”Main content of page”>
<NOFRAMES>

Tables:

Tables also create problems for screen readers. The current state of screen readers is that most of them are unable to discern columns in web pages. They read from left to right, jumbling the meaning of information in tables. Some blind visitors can interpret tabular information, but it is best to look for other ways to present the information to ensure that visitors with visual impairments can reach your data. Avoid or offer an alternative to multiple columns. Since the page will be read left to right and top to bottom, it's best to use single columns only.