Use W3C documentation for the XHTML1.1 table model. (http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-modularization/abstract_modules.html#s_tablemodule)
An abbreviated version of the cell’s content. The attribute may be rendered by user agents when appropriate in place of the cell’s content. Abbreviated names should be short since user agents may render them repeatedly. For instance, speech synthesizers may render the abbreviated headers relating to a particular cell before rendering that cell’s content.
Caution: This attribute has not been widely supported.