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Tables
When tables are not structured accessibly, the data they contain can quickly become a meaningless sea of numbers, facts and figures to someone moving through them a cell at a time. Readers who cannot see the table cannot use visual cheats like checking the alignment and scanning back to the top headings to orient themselves as they go. Equivalent information needs to be encoded into the table to facilitate comprehension.
Tables are meant to be used for tabular information (data). Tables should never be used to lay out documents. When editing a book, recreate charts and tables using the default functionality of the software, i.e. the Insert Table tool.
Tables have a logical reading order from left to right and top to bottom. Screenreader users can easily navigate to and examine data in tables. There are specific keyboard controls for reading tables that differ to the controls for reading regular text. When non-tabular text is rendered with tables, the reading controls are incorrect. This can make it confusing and difficult to read the document with a screenreader.
Do not present non-tabular information in a table format even if it presented as such in a book, i.e. a grocery list with two columns. Present such information as a list in two columns (see Formatting Columns).
How to insert a table
Captions and Descriptions
A caption or description should always be included to give context to a table. Never rely on the surrounding text to explain the presence of a table, especially when the table is offset from the content.
Tables are described and labeled, where appropriate.
Tables should not have titles in it. Remove titles from the table and style it as a Heading or Caption.
Table captions or descriptions should answer the question, “What is the table’s purpose and how is it organized?” For example: "A sample order form with separate columns for the item name, price and quantity".
Create a description for your table:
Right click on the table and choose Table Properties
.
Under the Alt text tab, insert your description in the Description
area.
Add a caption to your table:
Select the entire table or right click near the edge of the chart, graph or table, and choose Insert Caption
.
In the Caption dialog box, type in a short description.
For tables, the caption should be above the table.
Table cells should be marked as table headers or header rows when they serve as labels to help interpret the other cells in the table. Correctly identified headers provide metadata that the reader can call up as needed as they navigate the data points.
Click anywhere in the table.
Go to the Table Tools Design tab at the top of the page. Check the Header Row
check box.
Type (or retype) your column headings.
Press the Enter key.
This ensures the header row is repeated across pages. Do this even if the table does not go over multiple pages:
Place the cursor anywhere in the first row of the table. Right click and select Table Properties from the pop-up menu.
Select the Row tab in the Properties dialog box.
Check Repeat as header row at the top of each page
Ensure ''Allow row to break across pages'' is unchecked
Do not use split or merged cells in a Table. Screenreaders can’t handle it.
In Table Properties, under the Row tab, ensure Allow row to break across pages
is unchecked (make sure to uncheck this for each row by clicking on Next Row then unchecking, etc.).
Avoid blank cells
Do not use blank rows or columns in a table for formatting. Blank cells, rows, or columns could mislead someone using a screenreader into thinking that there is nothing more in the table. You can fix this by: *
removing unnecessary blank cells, rows, or columns.
adding some text indicating the cell is intentionally blank, i.e. N/A, “No data” or a hyphen.
Other tips
Use Word tools to create desired format, i.e. borders, line spacing, and other cell styles.
If you have multiple tables, you can create a Table style and apply this style to all new tables.
-
Sometimes you will need to convert a table to normal text:
First you highlight the table
This will create the 'Table Tools' section in the ribbon menu
Select the 'Layout' tab
On this menu select the 'Convert to Text' button
This will open a pop up, you then choose the paragraph break option to separate the text and hit okay
If the table is very large, or has a lot of information, there are a few steps you can take to ensure that it fits within the page margins.
You can use landscape layout instead of portrait for the pages that the table falls on. In order to enable this, you must first put a section break before and after the table, then select the table (and accompanying headings and/or captions), and choose Landscape orientation.
If the table still does not fit within the margins, you can also change the size of the pages (i.e. from US Letter to US Legal) by selecting the table and accompanying info, and choosing a different page size. If you want to try this without switching to Landscape orientation, you will still need to add section breaks before and after.
If you have done both of these, and the table still does not fit, you can try decreasing the font size.
Still having issues? Time to ask for assistance!
WCAG 2.0 — H39: Using caption elements to associate data table captions with data tables