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Thread: accessible tables: colgroup vs headers and ids

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Number of posts in this thread: 5 (In chronological order)

From: Angela French
Date: Fri, Apr 15 2016 1:31PM
Subject: accessible tables: colgroup vs headers and ids
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Hello,
I would appreciate a little accessibility-related feedback on the two tables on this page<http://www.sbctc.edu/colleges-staff/policies-rules/policy-manual/ch6-append-h.aspx>;. We have used the scope attribute, in an attempt to make complex tables accessible, because that is all that the text editor in our CMS provides. However, the accessibility validator in our CMS, which uses http://achecker.ca throws errors for not using headers and ids. Does properly used colgroup suffice, or is it necessary to hand code such tables with headers and ids to make them accessible?

Thanks,



Angela French
Internet/Intranet Specialist
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
360-704-4316
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
www.sbctc.edu<;http://www.sbctc.edu/>;

From: Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC)
Date: Fri, Apr 15 2016 2:17PM
Subject: Re: accessible tables: colgroup vs headers and ids
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They look correct to me and work properly with JAWS 16 on IE11.

Mike Moore
Accessibility Coordinator
Texas Health and Human Services Commission
Civil Rights Office
(512) 438-3431 (Office)

From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Fri, Apr 15 2016 2:30PM
Subject: Re: accessible tables: colgroup vs headers and ids
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> I would appreciate a little accessibility-related feedback on the two tables on this page<

Scope is sufficient because the headers all apply to all cells in that column. Ids and headers would be needed when not all headers in column apply to all cells -- e.g. you have different sections/subheaders further down in the table.

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group 
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
703.637.8957 (Office)

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From: Angela French
Date: Fri, Apr 15 2016 2:35PM
Subject: Re: accessible tables: colgroup vs headers and ids
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Thanks. This is what I thought, but when a noted accessibility checker throws an error on you, it's easy to second guess oneself. I suppose, programmatically, it must be tough to validate complex tables.

Angela French


From: Trafford, Logan
Date: Mon, Apr 18 2016 6:03AM
Subject: Re: accessible tables: colgroup vs headers and ids
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My guess is that AChecker's algorithms have a condition built in that checks for any colspans (or rowspans) and once it encounters one, the result is that it wants headers and ids defined.

In theory, colgroup and scope SHOULD be sufficient.
https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/tables/irregular/


Logan