WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Table cells with subheadings

for

From: Philip Kiff
Date: May 26, 2023 9:19AM


One thing to note about this specific page is that the table structure
is defined in the text of the actual signed authorization that appears
at the top of the page. The authorization  makes specific reference to
what content you can find in each "column". So you wouldn't want to
change the table format on this specific page.

Also, in terms of tagging strategies, since headings can sometimes get
lost for users within tables (I think?), in this case, it might be
possible instead to use a nested list for the content in column 4. And
you could style the list to remove bullets from the first two levels. So
for example, for item 202 in the second table, you would get something
like:

- CBSA
- - Domestic Regions
- - - Border Services Officer
- - - Hearings Advisor
- RCMP
- IRCC
- - Domestic Regions and CPR
- - - C&I

Just a thought.

Phil.

On 2023-05-26 09:59, glen walker wrote:
> The example page seems pretty straight forward. It's almost coded
> correctly, in my opinion. There are multiple tables on the page with each
> table preceded by an H3 heading, kind of like a <caption>, so it's easy to
> find each table along with it's description.
>
> Inside of the cells, there visually appears to be headings but they are
> just paragraph tags, <p>, with a classname of "h4" or "h5". Someone went to
> the trouble of naming the CSS classes as if they were heading elements but
> didn't actually use heading elements. Real <h4> and <h5> should be used.
>
> Once you have real headings in the cells, if you navigate by heading ('H'
> key with NVDA/JAWS or using the rotor on iOS), it's difficult to tell when
> you hear a heading in a new cell. However, if you navigate the table cell
> by cell (ctrl+alt+arrowkey), you hear the column header and then all the
> cell contents, including each heading (which is sometimes a lot).
>
> So it's possible to navigate and hear the structure in the cell, if you use
> real headings in the cells. Is it easy to understand? That's a difficult
> question to answer without real usability tests.
> > > >