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Re: Use of alt text in document tables

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From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Feb 22, 2016 7:25AM

> Is there any particular reason for adding alt text to data tables? This assumes you've identified header rows and other basic formatting. If you have a lot of tables, you may include captions and/or bookmarks to identify each table.

My thoughts are that this would be akin to the summary attribute -- which is not required and only advised when the structure of the table might otherwise be difficult to understand when using a screen reader.
https://www.w3.org/TR/2015/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20150226/H73

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group
<EMAIL REMOVED>
703.637.8957 (o)
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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Wyant, Jay (MNIT)
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2016 8:55 AM
To: ' <EMAIL REMOVED> '
Subject: [WebAIM] Use of alt text in document tables

We're about to create a training program on how to make accessible electronic documents. The focus will be on MS Word, though the principles can apply to any document application such as Google Docs. Here's the question:

Is there any particular reason for adding alt text to data tables? This assumes you've identified header rows and other basic formatting. If you have a lot of tables, you may include captions and/or bookmarks to identify each table.

MS Word's accessibility test throws an error if you don't add alt text, but I don't want to make people do things just because Word says so.

Thanks.

Jay
Jay Wyant |  Chief Information Accessibility Officer MN.IT Services, Central
651.201.1001 (w) | 612.825.8285 (m) | <EMAIL REMOVED>

Information Technology for Minnesota Government | mn.gov/mnit
Learn: http://mn.gov/mnit/programs/accessibility/