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Re: Data tables in html and blank cells

for

From: glen walker
Date: Nov 20, 2020 9:54AM

As Mark said, there isn't an accessibility problem with blank cells as long
as there isn't some visual clue that the cell is blank other than it being
blank. For example, if you put an icon or something in the cell to make it
look blank then that indicator would have to be announced. But then I
suppose the cell isn't technically empty if it has an indicator.

Anyway, your situation might come down to user experience. Different
screen readers treat empty cells differently.

JAWS will say "blank" for the empty cell whether you navigate vertically
(down a column) or horizontally (across a row) to the cell.
NVDA will only say "blank" if you navigate vertically to the cell. It will
not say "blank" if you navigate across the row *and* the cell has a column
header. It will only say the column header. If there is no column header,
then NVDA will say "blank" if you navigate horizontally. I think that's an
NVDA bug.
VoiceOver on Mac will say "blank" for the empty cell whether you navigate
vertically or horizontally to the cell.
VoiceOver on iOS has the worst behavior. If I navigate across a row, it
will skip blank cells completely. It jumps right over it. If I have my
rotor set to navigate by rows and I swipe down to navigate down a column,
VO thinks you're at the bottom of the column if there's a blank cell below
it. You can't get to the other non-blank cells below the blank one.

On Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 9:19 AM < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Greetings!
>
>
>
> I'm on a team moving courses to Canvas and something came up. We have some
> assignment rubrics with blank cells. Headers for criteria and points are in
> place. The folks working on coding believe that it is not a11y/508
> compliant. They put placeholder text in each cell:
>
> This area will be used by the assessor to leave comments related to this
> criterion.
>
> This would be read by a screenreader in every instance. Everything I find
> indicates that leaving a cell blank is preferred and compliant.
>
>
>
> I look forward to your expert advice.
>
>
>
> Thanks!
>
> Caron
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