Table Compliance and Accessibility

In this article, learn more about how to make a page's tables more accessible to those who may need to use assistive devices.

Accessibility and Compliance Tips   

• Ensure that all cells have data. If a cell does not have data, add 'None" to indicate to users with screen readers that the cell is empty. If the table has empty cells, then the screen reader will only pause briefly, which is insufficient in indicating a lack of data.
• Table Header rows in the Editor are marked <th> as opposed to <td> for table data cells. If you want to edit the first column to have a header style there is a built-in table header option in the Editor.
  
• Make tables as small and as simple as possible. This lessens the possibility that a user will get confused or a screen reader will get stuck in one cell. It is better to break a table up (I.e., Vitamins and functions of Vitamin A as two separate tables) versus putting the functions of the Vitamin A table inside the Vitamin A Sources cell.
• Tables in Editor widgets do not have header columns applied universally, you need to put exactly what you would like read in the header column. For instance, if you wanted each item in a row to say, September 6^th Agenda, September 6^th Minutes, September 6^th Video, you need to write it like that in each cell. You cannot just write "September 6^th Agenda" in the first cell, then “Minutes” in the next, and “Video” in the last.

Resources

• Use the Insert Table Tool