My question is related to implementing Accessibility when using a datagrid, a datalist, XML, and/or a database. All the info has been advocated in many circles and I would like to comply using ASP.NET and XML.NET.
In many cases we are writing our ASP.net code to give access to data that is already in place and has been used for a considerable amount of time. The biggest problem is that many databases and XML files are already set in place and we cannot change the data ( or the powers that be are unwilling to do so). Likewise we are not in a position to add columns to the information in support of addressing Accessibility issues (for ex. a column for dynamic insertion of an ALT tag to explain images stored inside of the database, addition of supportive information (summary, caption, and scope) when tabular data is dynamically built from an XML data file as in
<table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="4" summary="this summary">
<caption>
this caption
</caption>
<tr>
<th scope="col"> </th>
<th scope="col"> </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</table>
AND / OR a dynamically built link that usually would be <a href="http://www.here.com" target="_blank">go here</a>
but really should be constructed as the code below for Accessibility reasons
<a href="http://www.here.com" tabindex="3" title="A location to enjoy" accesskey="1" target="_blank">go here</a>
So what can we do to increase Accessibility in these instances beyond adding to the XML or the database?
Another issues to address would be in dynamic paging of a datagrid where the use of numeric or alpha characters are used to paginate through the data.