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Re: Tables and Excel: merged or unmerged cells?

for

From: Paul J. Adam
Date: Apr 16, 2012 8:55AM

Hi Bevi, it's ok to merge the header cells like in your Excel example. The important thing is to not merge the cells in the actual data section of the table. I used to do training on Word & Excel accessibility and I have heard people recommend not to merge any cells at all but it's not a problem unless you merge the data cells which could mess up the users ability to navigate with the up/down/right/left arrow keys.

Paul J. Adam
Accessibility Evangelist
Deque Systems
<EMAIL REMOVED>
www.PaulJAdam.com
@pauljadam on Twitter

On Apr 14, 2012, at 9:13 PM, Bevi Chagnon wrote:

> Since neither the email nor the attachments came through with the test
> tables, I've uploaded them to:
> http://www.pubcom.com/508tests/
>
> --Bevi
>
> -----------------------------------------------------
> Bevi Chagnon | <EMAIL REMOVED>
> PubCom - Trainers, consultants, designers, and developers
> Print | Web | Acrobat | XML | eBooks | Section 508
> -----------------------------------------------------
> Classes: www.PubCom.com/classes
> Publishing Blog: www.pubcom.com/blog
> -----------------------------------------------------
> *** It's our 31st Year! ***
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Bevi Chagnon
> Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2012 9:26 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: [WebAIM] Tables and Excel: merged or unmerged cells?
>
> 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
>
> --
>
> * It's our 31st Year! *
>
>
>
>
> > >