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Re: Use of alt text in document tables

for

From: L Snider
Date: Feb 22, 2016 11:13AM

I am really glad you brought up this topic. I had the exact same issue with
the table alts in training material I was preparing a few months back.

When I do training, I tell people hey here is a cool checker...but then it
becomes tough because I have to say, well ignore this and ignore that...In
the end, I make alts for tables, because it is less confusing for people I
train. I wish there was a way to turn certain flags off in Word, that would
help a lot.

Cheers

Lisa


On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 12:05 PM, Jim Allan < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

>
> ​
> Found this interesting.
> Did some testing with Jaws and NVDA. created a file with a table. Inserted
> a Caption for the table, also opened table properties added Title and
> Description on the Alt Text Tab. Neither screen reader read the Caption, or
> Title, or Description when navigating into the table.
> I agree with Jonathan that it might be useful as a summary, but only if
> assistive technology can make use of the information.
> If someone knows how to get Jaws or NVDA to read the alt or title on a
> table in Word automatically, I would like to know.
>
> Also tested with a document that had many tables. The checker only flagged
> one of thirty tables. The flagged table didn't look any different from
> other tables in the document. When I inserted a new table it was
> immediately flagged as needing alt text. I converted to text a table that
> was not originally flagged by the checker. When I converted it back to a
> table, it was immediately flagged as needing an alt.
>
> Not very useful feature. Creates a mess for training. Do something about
> these errors, but ignore this other error because it is make work, and if
> you do make the checker happy the end user derives no benefit.
>
> Jim
>
>