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From: Meacham, Steve - FSA, Kansas City, MO
Date: Tue, Jul 25 2017 10:35AM
Subject: Guidance for HTML data table special cases?
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I've provided guidance for two special cases of HTML data tables to my organization. It has not been well received. Here it is, summarized, and I'd appreciate feedback or references to something I can point them too that might be better or more acceptable/accessible.

For data tables that contain no data, such as before being populated, or which lack any matching records: Rather than presenting a single row of column headers followed by nothing else, include one subsequent row, spanning all the columns, with text that indicates why there is no data being displayed, and directing the user forward. Example: "No matching records. Try another query." Another example: "No data has been recorded. Add a record."

For data tables that contain missing data (i.e. there are blank data cells, intermingled with populated data cells): Leave the cells empty or using a non-breaking space. Don't add a hyphen, dot, N/A, or other place holder unless there is a particular business need.

For data tables that are sparse (same as above, but the blank cells become so numerous that finding the data that _is_ there becomes difficult to do non-visually, such as with a screen reader or magnifier): Redesign.

Thank you very much,
Steven Meacham, ICT Accessibility Program Manager
USDA Farm Service Agency
+1 (816) 926-1942<tel:+18169261942>
For program support email = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >





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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Tue, Jul 25 2017 11:36AM
Subject: Re: Guidance for HTML data table special cases?
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Just curious. Did they provide you any feedback on why they don't receive this guidance well?

From: Meacham, Steve - FSA, Kansas City, MO
Date: Tue, Jul 25 2017 11:46AM
Subject: Re: Guidance for HTML data table special cases?
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I won't share the specific vitriolic feedback, but it boils down to wanting to treat accessibility as a compliance issue (where's the WCAG success criteria to back this up?) vs accessibility as a practice (it violates WCAG principles Perceivable and Understandable, and it can be disorienting to even visual users).

From: Lucy Greco
Date: Tue, Jul 25 2017 12:45PM
Subject: Re: Guidance for HTML data table special cases?
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hello: i like what you said and and understand your frustration. however i
do disagree with the leaving the sells blank the beginner screen
reader user does not know how to navagate tables and needs some form of
place marker to show a sell is empty

Lucia Greco
Web Accessibility Evangelist
IST - Architecture, Platforms, and Integration
University of California, Berkeley
(510) 289-6008 skype: lucia1-greco
http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
Follow me on twitter @accessaces


On Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 10:46 AM, Meacham, Steve - FSA, Kansas City, MO <
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> I won't share the specific vitriolic feedback, but it boils down to
> wanting to treat accessibility as a compliance issue (where's the WCAG
> success criteria to back this up?) vs accessibility as a practice (it
> violates WCAG principles Perceivable and Understandable, and it can be
> disorienting to even visual users).
>
>

From: Meacham, Steve - FSA, Kansas City, MO
Date: Tue, Jul 25 2017 1:20PM
Subject: Re: Guidance for HTML data table special cases?
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JAWS (what I use) says 'blank' on empty cells and those containing only whitespace. When they are few and far between, it's great, and nothing other than 'blank' seems any better. Those cells being blank are significant and should stand out as much as cells containing data.

There comes a threshold where the empty cells are so numerous that they effectively face into the background and become unimportant. The visual user's eye is then drawn to where the text is - the data. At a glance. Conveniently. But a to a non-visual user, the whitespace doesn't fade away, and you end up visualizing the whole table, and the concentrations of non-blank cells aren't apparent. We have to listen to all of it, blanks and all. Laborious. Verbose, Not convenient.