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Re: Table regularity versus empty table cell

for

From: Philip Kiff
Date: Feb 20, 2018 11:14AM

I think it is preferable to insert an empty TD cell, but I'd be curious
to hear what others think, or if there is actually a hard-and-fast
guideline that covers this case.

For what it's worth, the PAC (PDF Accessibility Checker) will also fail
a PDF that does not have the same number of TD tags in each row (taking
into account any col spans in the headers), and it does not seem to care
if a data cell is empty.

You might also check to see if the error in CommonLook relates to *how
many* empty cells you have in a row?

Or maybe you have additional empty tags (like P tags) inside empty TD
tags and maybe those are being flagged (as opposed to just the empty TDs
on their own)?

Phil.

On 2018-02-20 10:02 AM, Alan Zaitchik wrote:
> Has anyone noticed the following? A PDF I am working on has a data table with an empty cell in column 1 row 2. (The rest of the table is regular, with appropriate column headers, no row headers, etc.) The Acrobat Accessibility Checker complains that the table fails Regularity unless I add an (empty) TD cell, so that row 2 has as many columns as the rest of the table rows do. However, if I add that empty TD then CommonLook (HHS standard) fails the table for having an empty cell! I cannot edit the PDF or the source file, e.g. to add "N/A" or its ilk to the added cell.
> So which is preferable? An empty TD cell or a row with no TD cell in that column?
> Does JAWS (or NVDA or ... ) actually care?
> Thanks,
> A
>
> > > >