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Number of posts in this thread: 11 (In chronological order)

From: Claire Forbes
Date: Fri, Oct 25 2024 5:31AM
Subject: Document table summaries
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Good morning, everyone, and happy Friday!
I'm getting some push back on table summaries in documents - the checklists I utilize are adapted from HHS (https://www.hhs.gov/web/section-508/accessibility-checklists/index.html) and have summaries as a required item under WCAG 1.3.1. Table summaries is also an item that Adobe Acrobat Pro Accessibility Checker will flag if it's missing.

https://ictbaseline.access-board.gov/alldocsbaselines.html - Section 12: Tables references table summaries and that they're not permitted for layout tables, "When <table> elements are used for layout purposes, data table structure elements such as row/column headers, captions, or table summaries are not permitted." So to me this reads that layout tables shouldn't have a table summary (which makes sense because layout tables aren't supposed to even be tagged as a table), but a data table should have a summary.

However, I'm being told that summaries are no longer a required item for Section 508 accessibility - anyone have insight or an opinion on this matter?

Thank you,
Claire Forbes
Section 508 Specialist

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Fri, Oct 25 2024 5:47AM
Subject: Re: Document table summaries
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On 25/10/2024 12:31, Claire Forbes wrote:

> https://ictbaseline.access-board.gov/alldocsbaselines.html - Section 12: Tables references table summaries and that they're not permitted for layout tables, "When <table> elements are used for layout purposes, data table structure elements such as row/column headers, captions, or table summaries are not permitted." So to me this reads that layout tables shouldn't have a table summary (which makes sense because layout tables aren't supposed to even be tagged as a table), but a data table should have a summary.

Purely coming from a WCAG perspective, no, I never consider summaries to
be required. And from the above, saying "Data tables must not have
summaries" does not necessarily mean that the inverse is "All non-data
tables must have summaries".

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

* https://www.splintered.co.uk/
* https://github.com/patrickhlauke
* https://flickr.com/photos/redux/
* https://mastodon.social/@patrick_h_lauke

From: L Snider
Date: Fri, Oct 25 2024 5:54AM
Subject: Re: Document table summaries
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Hi Claire,

I don't usually do table summaries, in a rare case I may use them but
haven't for years. However, again I go way past WCAG.

Cheers

Lisa

On Fri, Oct 25, 2024 at 8:31 AM Claire Forbes < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Good morning, everyone, and happy Friday!
> I'm getting some push back on table summaries in documents - the
> checklists I utilize are adapted from HHS (
> https://www.hhs.gov/web/section-508/accessibility-checklists/index.html)
> and have summaries as a required item under WCAG 1.3.1. Table summaries is
> also an item that Adobe Acrobat Pro Accessibility Checker will flag if it's
> missing.
>
> https://ictbaseline.access-board.gov/alldocsbaselines.html - Section 12:
> Tables references table summaries and that they're not permitted for layout
> tables, "When <table> elements are used for layout purposes, data table
> structure elements such as row/column headers, captions, or table summaries
> are not permitted." So to me this reads that layout tables shouldn't have a
> table summary (which makes sense because layout tables aren't supposed to
> even be tagged as a table), but a data table should have a summary.
>
> However, I'm being told that summaries are no longer a required item for
> Section 508 accessibility - anyone have insight or an opinion on this
> matter?
>
> Thank you,
> Claire Forbes
> Section 508 Specialist
>
> > > > >

From: Claire Forbes
Date: Fri, Oct 25 2024 6:25AM
Subject: Re: Document table summaries
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Okay, thank you.
A follow-up question then: How do you handle Adobe Acrobat's Accessibility Checker flagging a missing table summary? I typically provide the results of any automated testing - do you suggest adding a note that it's not a WCAG required item and the failure can be disregarded?

From: Steve Green
Date: Fri, Oct 25 2024 6:34AM
Subject: Re: Document table summaries
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On the rare occasions that clients ask for the results from Adobe Acrobat's Accessibility Checker, we either turn off that test or explain that it's irrelevant. But Acrobat's Checker is so weak we almost never use it. We use PAC 2024 and Commonlook PDF Validator, the latter of which is far more thorough than the others. Neither of those reports the lack of table summaries as a WCAG non-conformance.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd

From: Claire Forbes
Date: Fri, Oct 25 2024 6:44AM
Subject: Re: Document table summaries
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Okay, thank you.
I tend to include the results I get from Adobe Acrobat's Accessibility Checker because clients often utilize it and reference it when submitting a PDF for Section 508 review.

From: L Snider
Date: Fri, Oct 25 2024 9:21AM
Subject: Re: Document table summaries
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I have not seen the table summary come up in years (I remediate many tables
and none has had a summary). Are you using an older version of Acrobat Pro?

Cheers

Lisa

On Fri, Oct 25, 2024 at 9:53 AM Claire Forbes < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Okay, thank you.
> I tend to include the results I get from Adobe Acrobat's Accessibility
> Checker because clients often utilize it and reference it when submitting a
> PDF for Section 508 review.
>

From: Christine Hogenkamp
Date: Fri, Oct 25 2024 12:54PM
Subject: Re: Document table summaries
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I'm using a 2024 version of Acrobat and Table Summaries is still part of
the Accessibility Check results.

I myself have wondered about table summaries before, especially wondered
what exactly are table summaries meant to say, is it just meant to be a
header title for the data ie "Results from 2023" that represents the table
contents or is it meant to an actual sentence "Results from 2023 that
include Company Name, Costs and Items" etc in a more descriptive way.

Like Claire, we tend to add those table summaries on with the assumption
that the client could use the checker themselves and see the flagged error,
so we just use the "header title" method in the absence of us finding any
particular authoritative guidance on the wording, just to keep things
simple.

I have debated whether we should just not bother and leave them blank (and
do as Steve says, just explain that it's a false positive and can be
ignored) as a better user experience, so I welcome anyone who uses a screen
reader etc to say if they'd prefer to have that table summary for each data
table or is it just a negative experience that you'd rather not hear
anything. OR maybe it makes no difference either way! :)

*x*
*Christine Hogenkamp (She, Her)*
Front-end Developer & Accessibility Lead
Context Creative – a Mod Op company
416.972.1439 | contextcreative.com


On Fri, Oct 25, 2024 at 2:00 PM < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: L Snider < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2024 12:21:43 -0300
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Document table summaries
> I have not seen the table summary come up in years (I remediate many tables
> and none has had a summary). Are you using an older version of Acrobat Pro?
>
> Cheers
>
> Lisa
>
> On Fri, Oct 25, 2024 at 9:53 AM Claire Forbes < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> wrote:
>
> > Okay, thank you.
> > I tend to include the results I get from Adobe Acrobat's Accessibility
> > Checker because clients often utilize it and reference it when
> submitting a
> > PDF for Section 508 review.
> >

From: Claire Forbes
Date: Fri, Oct 25 2024 1:03PM
Subject: Re: Document table summaries
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No, I have Adobe Acrobat Pro Version 2024.003.20180 - I just had a PDF flag for lack of table summaries.

From: L Snider
Date: Fri, Oct 25 2024 1:11PM
Subject: Re: Document table summaries
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Interesting! Mine is the newest on Mac and PC and I don't get that warning
or error, and haven't in years. Good to know (I don't use summaries for
tables anyway)!

Cheers

Lisa

On Fri, Oct 25, 2024 at 4:04 PM Claire Forbes < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> No, I have Adobe Acrobat Pro Version 2024.003.20180 - I just had a PDF
> flag for lack of table summaries.
>

From: Dax Castro
Date: Fri, Oct 25 2024 2:09PM
Subject: Re: Document table summaries
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You simply need to uncheck that box. You will get a "skipped" note.
WCAG does not require summaries.
This is part of the problem when companies rely solely on checker reports.

Thanks!

Dax Castro, ADS
Certified Digital Accessibility Trainer
Accessibility Advocate | IAAP
www.accessibilityUnraveled.com

Chax Chat
Accessibility Podcast

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