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Re: Presenting tabular data in visually non-tabular ways

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mar 5, 2015 12:14PM

If a table is the most semantically appropriate element for data, that
data should be set up as a table, not doing so would be a violation of
WCAG 1.3.1
If it looks like a table, is presented as a table and has visual
characteristics of a table with at least well-defined column headers,
that needs to be set up as a table with all required markup (marking
up column header cells and, if appropriate, rowheader cells).
If the faux table only has two columns and makes sense when linearized
I would not call this out, but when you have more than two columns,
tables do not linearize well and relevant information is easily lost
to users of screen readers if the datastructure markup is missing.
ARIA can be used to fix problems such as missing row or column headers
and, in extreme cases, can even be applied to existing containers to
create a grid from scratch, though that is quite frankly a bit silly.
So, yes, I would absolutely call those patterns out under WCAG 1.3.1
Cheers


On 3/5/15, Meacham, Steve - FSA, Kansas City, MO
< <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> I'm seeing this pattern more and more often: rows of data presented that
> could/should/would have traditionally been in a table with well-defined
> columns, but now presented as more of a blob of text. For example:
>
> Assigned
> Due 3/1/2015
>
> Farm #12345 - 2,500 Acres
> Montgomery County, Michigan
> Approver: Jonathan McCormick
>
> Started
> Due 5/10/2015
>
> Farm #2345 - 1,200 Acres
> Montgomery County, Michigan
> Approver: Jonathan McCormick
>
> Competed
> Due 5/15/2015
>
> Farm #45689 - 450 Acres
> Montgomery County, Michigan
> Approver: Randy Smith
>
> Approved
> Due 6/1/2015
>
> Farm #3214 - 12,450 Acres
> Montgomery County, Michigan
> Approver: Julia Bartosky
>
>
> Visually, this actually seems to work. If you were trying to pick something
> from a list of items, all the necessary distinctives are there, positioned
> consistently to allow quickly scanning through the rows with our eyes.
> There are even in-line labels for non-self-evident data elements.
>
> I don't believe that this works so well for users of AT, such as single-line
> refreshable Braille, or screen readers. How can such a user 'scan' the
> information, looking at one column-equivalent of data (Approver, for
> example, in the example above)?
>
> What is our response, as both UX and Accesibility professionals?
>
> Steve Meacham
> FSA Section 508 Coordinator
> Office: +1 (816) 926-1942
> Call or Text: +1 (202) 455-USDA (8732)
>
>
>
>
>
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