My colleagues already know that I'm screaming about HTML and CSS for a long time. They also know that I hate tables, and that I hate combination of tables and divs. So, You may ask, why this discussion then?

Well, yes, table eradication is great, do nasty HTML source, no bunch of tr, no calculations how many cells are needed, no nested tables, no confusing colspan, rowspan and who knows what else. When using tables You are also limited with later redesign. Cells are there where they are, and no CSS can help that. Yet, why the stupid question in title then?

Well its actually simple. Accessibility!
NO WAY you will say, since divs+css are probably most accessible combination. Well, actually no. What if you have for example exchange rate list with e.g. 30 currencies? Can You make it as div based, and will it look ok with no CSS?

I didn't think so. See, when creating web page, no matter how You hate tables, for some things tables are much better. They have best presentation model, since even without styles applied, you can easily follow table. With div based table, you will get just bunch of numbers and letters, and will probably end up unreadable. So, when comes to accessibility for some reports, exchange rates or similar content, my advice is Go with the tables. Heck, a few table here and there will not ruin your visual identity in a way not formatted divs will to end user.

You got it right, man. That’s the only time tables are supposed to be used, and that’s exactly what they’re intended for. Tabular data. The problem arises when you try to stick layout into tables. As long as they’re just holding data, accessibility is actually improved because the standard was created to read exactly that kind of information in the format of cells, columns and rows. Keep on fighting for standards!