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Re: Tables and Excel: merged or unmerged cells?

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Apr 14, 2012 7:56PM

When you can avoid merging, please always do so (from a screen reader
user who made a living as a risk analyst working in Excel for 3
years).
I think having a heading for a merged column cells is ok, but screen
reader (at least Jaws, who generally works best with Excel), easily
get confused and unwieldy with merged columns.
Definitely *never* put numerical information in merged cells, just please no.
Heading in merged cells are ok, though you should always supply the
download link for these documents with a link or article on how to
unmerge cells with various screen readers.
I personally don't see why you need to repeat a heading above each
column, if there is a:

fruit cars
apples pairs toyotas
..
it's usually very obvious which column belongs to each super-heading.
To summarize:
unmerged is better, numerical information provided in a merged field
is nearly impossible to work with as a screen reader user.
Provide quick hints on how to unmerge cells in Excel in screen readers
(I can dig this up and send to list if wanted), with the download link
to spreadsheets, or provide a link to the page that explains it.
Thanks
-B

On 4/15/12, Bevi Chagnon < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> I have a question for our list members who use assistive technologies.
>
> Do you want cells in a Word table or Excel spreadsheet merged or unmerged?
>
> I'm asking because I've received conflicting information from government
> clients. A few years ago I worked directly with an accessibility tester at
> the National Federation of the Blind to test Excel spreadsheets for a
> federal government agency. The tester wanted merged cells that spanned
> appropriate columns or rows.
>
> But many U.S. government agencies have guidelines requiring cells to be
> unmerged in Word tables and Excel spreadsheets.
>
> Here's a quick sample (also in the Word and Excel attachments). The header
> "Apples" spans 2 columns, Macintosh and Red Delicious. "Pears" spans 2
> columns, Bosc and Bartlett. (Please note that TD tags will be applied in the
> actual Word documents).
>
>
> Sales of produce for 2011 and 2012 by variety
>
>
>
>
> Apples
>
> Pears
>
>
>
>
> Macintosh
>
> Red Delicious
>
> Bosc
>
> Bartlett
>
>
> 2011
>
> 2000
>
> 2500
>
> 3000
>
> 3500
>
>
> 2012
>
> 1000
>
> 1500
>
> 2000
>
> 2500
>
> Some government agencies require this version below, where "Apples" is
> repeated above each column, making the table ridiculously complex for
> sighted users.
>
>
> Sales of produce for 2011 and 2012 by variety
>
>
>
>
> Apples
>
> Apples
>
> Pears
>
> Pears
>
>
>
>
> Macintosh
>
> Red Delicious
>
> Bosc
>
> Bartlett
>
>
> 2011
>
> 2000
>
> 2500
>
> 3000
>
> 3500
>
>
> 2012
>
> 1000
>
> 1500
>
> 2000
>
> 2500
>
> WCAG 2.0 has notes about the scope attribute, but that is for HTML webpages
> only and is not available (at this time) for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and
> other non-web documents.
>
> Thanks for any guidance you can give.
>
> -- Bevi
>
> --
>
> Bevi Chagnon | <EMAIL REMOVED>
>
> PubCom - Trainers, consultants, designers, and developers
>
> Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, eBooks, and Federal Section 508
>
> --
>
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