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Thread: Guidelines for tables in Word
Number of posts in this thread: 11 (In chronological order)
From: Wyant, Jay (MNIT)
Date: Tue, May 21 2013 1:50PM
Subject: Guidelines for tables in Word
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Folks,
Just to give you a quick break from web-based issues, here's a question re accessible Word documents: What steps would you deem essential to creating accessible tables in Word? There are many possible steps (see the list, below), but which are essential? (References are for Word 2010)
- Assign a header row (table tools ribbon)
- Assign first column (table tools ribbon)
- "Repeat as header row at the top of each page" (via Table Properties, Row tab)
- Alt text (via Table Properties, Alt text tab)
- Bookmark (via Insert ribbon, links tab)
- Caption (References ribbon, Captions tab)
Thanks,
Jay
JAY WYANT | CHIEF INFORMATION ACCESSIBILITY OFFICER
MN.IT SERVICES, CENTRAL
651.201.1001 (w) | 612.825.8285 (m) | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Information Technology for Minnesota Government | mn.gov/oet
Learn: http://mn.gov/oet/governance/for-agencies/accessibility/
From: Kohn, Robbie
Date: Tue, May 21 2013 2:40PM
Subject: Re: Guidelines for tables in Word
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Hi Jay,
On our project, we require all of these items, except where the first column is simply data and not a row header.
Robbie Kohn
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Wyant, Jay (MNIT)
Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 3:51 PM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: [WebAIM] Guidelines for tables in Word
Folks,
Just to give you a quick break from web-based issues, here's a question re accessible Word documents: What steps would you deem essential to creating accessible tables in Word? There are many possible steps (see the list, below), but which are essential? (References are for Word 2010)
- Assign a header row (table tools ribbon)
- Assign first column (table tools ribbon)
- "Repeat as header row at the top of each page" (via Table Properties, Row tab)
- Alt text (via Table Properties, Alt text tab)
- Bookmark (via Insert ribbon, links tab)
- Caption (References ribbon, Captions tab)
Thanks,
Jay
JAY WYANT | CHIEF INFORMATION ACCESSIBILITY OFFICER MN.IT SERVICES, CENTRAL
651.201.1001 (w) | 612.825.8285 (m) | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Information Technology for Minnesota Government | mn.gov/oet
Learn: http://mn.gov/oet/governance/for-agencies/accessibility/
From: Olaf Drümmer
Date: Tue, May 21 2013 8:07PM
Subject: Re: Guidelines for tables in Word
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Hi Kay,
what purpose would the Alt text serve? Do you apply to the whole table?
Thanks,
Olaf
On 21 May 2013, at 21:50, Wyant, Jay (MNIT) wrote:
> Folks,
>
> Just to give you a quick break from web-based issues, here's a question re accessible Word documents: What steps would you deem essential to creating accessible tables in Word? There are many possible steps (see the list, below), but which are essential? (References are for Word 2010)
>
> - Assign a header row (table tools ribbon)
> - Assign first column (table tools ribbon)
> - "Repeat as header row at the top of each page" (via Table Properties, Row tab)
> - Alt text (via Table Properties, Alt text tab)
> - Bookmark (via Insert ribbon, links tab)
> - Caption (References ribbon, Captions tab)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jay
> JAY WYANT | CHIEF INFORMATION ACCESSIBILITY OFFICER
> MN.IT SERVICES, CENTRAL
> 651.201.1001 (w) | 612.825.8285 (m) | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>
> Information Technology for Minnesota Government | mn.gov/oet
>
> Learn: http://mn.gov/oet/governance/for-agencies/accessibility/
>
>
>
>
> > >
From: Ryan E. Benson
Date: Tue, May 21 2013 9:30PM
Subject: Re: Guidelines for tables in Word
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Olaf, I interpreted the alt text feature in Word 2010 akin to the summary
attribute in HTML, and MS used alt text versus summary because of the KISS
principle.
--
Ryan E. Benson
On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 10:07 PM, Olaf Drümmer < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hi Kay,
>
> what purpose would the Alt text serve? Do you apply to the whole table?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Olaf
>
> On 21 May 2013, at 21:50, Wyant, Jay (MNIT) wrote:
>
> > Folks,
> >
> > Just to give you a quick break from web-based issues, here's a question
> re accessible Word documents: What steps would you deem essential to
> creating accessible tables in Word? There are many possible steps (see the
> list, below), but which are essential? (References are for Word 2010)
> >
> > - Assign a header row (table tools ribbon)
> > - Assign first column (table tools ribbon)
> > - "Repeat as header row at the top of each page" (via Table Properties,
> Row tab)
> > - Alt text (via Table Properties, Alt text tab)
> > - Bookmark (via Insert ribbon, links tab)
> > - Caption (References ribbon, Captions tab)
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Jay
> > JAY WYANT | CHIEF INFORMATION ACCESSIBILITY OFFICER
> > MN.IT SERVICES, CENTRAL
> > 651.201.1001 (w) | 612.825.8285 (m) | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> >
> > Information Technology for Minnesota Government | mn.gov/oet
> >
> > Learn: http://mn.gov/oet/governance/for-agencies/accessibility/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > > > > >
> > > >
From: Jennison Asuncion
Date: Wed, May 22 2013 7:01AM
Subject: Re: Guidelines for tables in Word
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Hi,
The folks at the Inclusive Design Research Centre have the following resource that might be of interest for Word and other documents' accessibility - Accessible Digital Office Document (ADOD) Project http://adod.idrc.ocad.ca/
Hope this helps,
Jennison
Jennison Mark Asuncion
Co-Director, Adaptech Research Network http://www.adaptech.org
LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennison
Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/jennison
Accessibility Camp Toronto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeP5Kl4GDgA
From: Wyant, Jay (MNIT)
Date: Wed, May 22 2013 1:24PM
Subject: Re: Guidelines for tables in Word
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Olaf, et al,
Jenison's link (http://adod.idrc.ocad.ca/) also stated to "Create a text summary of the essential table contents. Any abbreviations used should be explained in the summary." Unless that summary is in the document body , then I presume it means to place it in the alt text. Which calls for a very brief summary, along with abbreviations.
Jay
-----Original Message-----
From: Ryan E. Benson [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 10:30 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Guidelines for tables in Word
Olaf, I interpreted the alt text feature in Word 2010 akin to the summary attribute in HTML, and MS used alt text versus summary because of the KISS principle.
--
Ryan E. Benson
On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 10:07 PM, Olaf Drümmer < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hi Kay,
>
> what purpose would the Alt text serve? Do you apply to the whole table?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Olaf
>
> On 21 May 2013, at 21:50, Wyant, Jay (MNIT) wrote:
>
> > Folks,
> >
> > Just to give you a quick break from web-based issues, here's a
> > question
> re accessible Word documents: What steps would you deem essential to
> creating accessible tables in Word? There are many possible steps (see
> the list, below), but which are essential? (References are for Word
> 2010)
> >
> > - Assign a header row (table tools ribbon)
> > - Assign first column (table tools ribbon)
> > - "Repeat as header row at the top of each page" (via Table
> > Properties,
> Row tab)
> > - Alt text (via Table Properties, Alt text tab)
> > - Bookmark (via Insert ribbon, links tab)
> > - Caption (References ribbon, Captions tab)
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Jay
> > JAY WYANT | CHIEF INFORMATION ACCESSIBILITY OFFICER MN.IT
> > SERVICES, CENTRAL
> > 651.201.1001 (w) | 612.825.8285 (m) | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> >
> > Information Technology for Minnesota Government | mn.gov/oet
> >
> > Learn: http://mn.gov/oet/governance/for-agencies/accessibility/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > > > > list messages to = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>
> > > list messages to = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>
From: Karen Sorensen
Date: Wed, May 22 2013 3:16PM
Subject: Re: Guidelines for tables in Word
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Hi Jay,
I think that's a great question.
Here's the priority I think they should have:
1. Assign a header row
2. "Repeat as header row at the top of each page"
Alt text and captioning are supplement when it comes to tables with
tabular data in MS Word, in my opinion. If you have an adequate description
of the table and its purpose in the page content, I don't think you need
them.
Assigning the first column only benefits sighted users. It doesn't actually
markup the first column as row headers (unless this has been updated in MS
2013).
I hadn't thought of bookmarking a table, but sounds like a good thing to do
for everyone's usability.
Best,
Karen
Karen M. Sorensen
Accessibility Advocate for Online Courses
www.pcc.edu/access
Portland Community College
971-722-4720
From: Jim Allan
Date: Wed, May 22 2013 4:08PM
Subject: Re: Guidelines for tables in Word
← Previous message | Next message →
Hi Jay,
some of these were new to me. So I had to test.
comments inline...
On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 2:50 PM, Wyant, Jay (MNIT) < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >wrote:
> Folks,
>
> Just to give you a quick break from web-based issues, here's a question re
> accessible Word documents: What steps would you deem essential to creating
> accessible tables in Word? There are many possible steps (see the list,
> below), but which are essential? (References are for Word 2010)
>
>
> - Assign a header row (table tools ribbon)
> - Assign first column (table tools ribbon)
> - "Repeat as header row at the top of each page" (via Table Properties,
> Row tab)
> - Alt text (via Table Properties, Alt text tab)
>
jim: the Alt is not spoken in word table by JAWS (at least with any method
that I know of). When converted to html the Word Alt becomes the title
not the summary, and is generally not spoken by JAWS. However, DESCRIPTION
becomes the table summary attribute in HTML conversion, and would be usful
to document creators to use. Alas, description is not spoken by JAWS in
Word or PDF
.
- Bookmark (via Insert ribbon, links tab)
>
Jim: this is a JAWS only hack and must be done properly or there is no
benefit to the JAWS user. see Bookmarks in tables -
http://www.ehealth.va.gov/508/tutorials/word/7bookmarks_1.asp
. Bookmarks do nothing with JAWS in PDF that I can find.
- Caption (References ribbon, Captions tab)
>
Jim: useful visually, not passed on to JAWS when you get a list of Tables
(insert-ctrl-t), conversion to HTML results in a paragraph marked with
class=MSOCaption. It appears as a separate line in PDF unrelated to the
table.
One day conversions will make more sense.
I am going to amend the rules for table to include
- Assign a header row (table tools ribbon)
- Assign first column (table tools ribbon)
- "Repeat as header row at the top of each page" (via Table Properties, Row
tab)
- Description text (via Table Properties, Alt text tab)
- Bookmark (via Insert ribbon, links tab)
- Caption (References ribbon, Captions tab)
A group of state agencies in Texas created the Productivity Toolbar for
Word 2010, that takes the most used and accessible Ribbon items and puts
them all on 1 ribbon. We also created youtube videos and associated
documentation. All available free at
http://governor.state.tx.us/disabilities/accessibledocs/
we called it the Productivity Toolbar because Accessibility Toolbar is
available for the creation of DAISY books, and whichever is installed last
will overwrite the previous one if they have the same name. The other
reason was political/social. Accessibility at times gets a bad rap from
folks who don't do it all the time, an you get resistance and pushback as
to its use. So we called it the Productivity Toolbar...you don't have to
hunt for all the different tools, etc. And everything on the toolbar
creates for facilitates the creation of accessible Word content. It has
been installed on all computers in several large agencies.
Jim
> Thanks,
>
> Jay
> JAY WYANT | CHIEF INFORMATION ACCESSIBILITY OFFICER
> MN.IT SERVICES, CENTRAL
> 651.201.1001 (w) | 612.825.8285 (m) | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>
> Information Technology for Minnesota Government | mn.gov/oet
>
> Learn: http://mn.gov/oet/governance/for-agencies/accessibility/
>
>
>
>
> > > >
--
Jim Allan, Accessibility Coordinator & Webmaster
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
voice 512.206.9315 fax: 512.206.9264 http://www.tsbvi.edu/
"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan, 1964
From: Lucy Greco
Date: Wed, May 22 2013 4:12PM
Subject: Re: Guidelines for tables in Word
← Previous message | Next message →
Great review I am going to point to your tool bar for faculty thanks Lucy
Lucia Greco
Web Access Analyst
IST-Campus Technology Services
University of California, Berkeley
(510) 289-6008 skype: lucia1-greco
http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
Follow me on twitter @accessaces
-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Jim Allan
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 3:08 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Guidelines for tables in Word
Hi Jay,
some of these were new to me. So I had to test.
comments inline...
On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 2:50 PM, Wyant, Jay (MNIT)
< = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >wrote:
> Folks,
>
> Just to give you a quick break from web-based issues, here's a question
re
> accessible Word documents: What steps would you deem essential to
creating
> accessible tables in Word? There are many possible steps (see the list,
> below), but which are essential? (References are for Word 2010)
>
>
> - Assign a header row (table tools ribbon)
> - Assign first column (table tools ribbon)
> - "Repeat as header row at the top of each page" (via Table Properties,
> Row tab)
> - Alt text (via Table Properties, Alt text tab)
>
jim: the Alt is not spoken in word table by JAWS (at least with any method
that I know of). When converted to html the Word Alt becomes the 'title'
not the summary, and is generally not spoken by JAWS. However, DESCRIPTION
becomes the table summary attribute in HTML conversion, and would be
usful
to document creators to use. Alas, description is not spoken by JAWS in
Word or PDF
.
- Bookmark (via Insert ribbon, links tab)
>
Jim: this is a JAWS only hack and must be done properly or there is no
benefit to the JAWS user. see Bookmarks in tables -
http://www.ehealth.va.gov/508/tutorials/word/7bookmarks_1.asp
. Bookmarks do nothing with JAWS in PDF that I can find.
- Caption (References ribbon, Captions tab)
>
Jim: useful visually, not passed on to JAWS when you get a list of Tables
(insert-ctrl-t), conversion to HTML results in a paragraph marked with
class=MSOCaption. It appears as a separate line in PDF unrelated to the
table.
One day conversions will make more sense.
I am going to amend the rules for table to include
- Assign a header row (table tools ribbon)
- Assign first column (table tools ribbon)
- "Repeat as header row at the top of each page" (via Table Properties,
Row
tab)
- Description text (via Table Properties, Alt text tab)
- Bookmark (via Insert ribbon, links tab)
- Caption (References ribbon, Captions tab)
A group of state agencies in Texas created the Productivity Toolbar for
Word 2010, that takes the most used and accessible Ribbon items and puts
them all on 1 ribbon. We also created youtube videos and associated
documentation. All available free at
http://governor.state.tx.us/disabilities/accessibledocs/
we called it the Productivity Toolbar because Accessibility Toolbar is
available for the creation of DAISY books, and whichever is installed last
will overwrite the previous one if they have the same name. The other
reason was political/social. Accessibility at times gets a bad rap from
folks who don't do it all the time, an you get resistance and pushback as
to its use. So we called it the Productivity Toolbar...you don't have to
hunt for all the different tools, etc. And everything on the toolbar
creates for facilitates the creation of accessible Word content. It has
been installed on all computers in several large agencies.
Jim
> Thanks,
>
> Jay
> JAY WYANT | CHIEF INFORMATION ACCESSIBILITY OFFICER
> MN.IT SERVICES, CENTRAL
> 651.201.1001 (w) | 612.825.8285 (m) | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>
> Information Technology for Minnesota Government | mn.gov/oet
>
> Learn: http://mn.gov/oet/governance/for-agencies/accessibility/
>
>
>
>
> > > >
--
Jim Allan, Accessibility Coordinator & Webmaster
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
voice 512.206.9315 fax: 512.206.9264 http://www.tsbvi.edu/
"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan, 1964
From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Thu, May 23 2013 8:21AM
Subject: Re: Guidelines for tables in Word
← Previous message | Next message →
Jim: this is a JAWS only hack and must be done properly or there is no benefit to the JAWS user. see Bookmarks in tables - http://www.ehealth.va.gov/508/tutorials/word/7bookmarks_1.asp
. Bookmarks do nothing with JAWS in PDF that I can find.
[AWK] If you navigate the the bookmarks tab in Reader you can navigate a document by bookmarks, but the bookmarks are not used to create tags in a specific manner.
- Caption (References ribbon, Captions tab)
Jim: useful visually, not passed on to JAWS when you get a list of Tables (insert-ctrl-t), conversion to HTML results in a paragraph marked with class=MSOCaption. It appears as a separate line in PDF unrelated to the table.
[AWK] The caption should be the first (or last) item in the table tag structure. I'll check to see if we have an open issue for that and add it if we don't.
[AWK] It is worth noting a couple things in the rules below
- Assign a header row (table tools ribbon)
- Assign first column (table tools ribbon)
[AWK] Neither of these two things actually does anything to the document structure. The only way to get headings in the output is the ensure that the next item in this list is checked ("repeat as header row..."). These checkboxes control style options for the table, although some of the styles have the "repeat as..." checkbox checked for you.
- "Repeat as header row at the top of each page" (via Table Properties, Row
tab)
[AWK] Checking this will make the TDs become TH's in the PDF export. In the HTML export it only wraps the TD's in a <THEAD>.
AWK
From: Jim Allan
Date: Thu, May 23 2013 3:29PM
Subject: Re: Guidelines for tables in Word
← Previous message | No next message
good additional information Andrew, Thanks.
[AWK] The caption should be the first (or last) item in the table tag
structure. I'll check to see if we have an open issue for that and add it
if we don't.
[jim] when I review the PDF
(Acrobat Pro X) that was exported from Word 2010 the caption does not
appear as part of the table. Although, I could be doing something wrong or
there is an undiscovered feature.
>
>
--
Jim Allan, Accessibility Coordinator & Webmaster
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
voice 512.206.9315 fax: 512.206.9264 http://www.tsbvi.edu/
"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan, 1964