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Re: Tables and Excel: merged or unmerged cells?

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Apr 16, 2012 9:03AM

Paul

Thanks for rewording my email more eficiently :) that is precisely
what I meant to say.


On 4/16/12, Paul J. Adam < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> 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! *
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> >> >> >
> > > >