Overview
This article helps students, faculty, and staff understand the meaning, purpose, and best practices of tables to help meet digital accessibility standards in their content. It provides tips and more resources. Always refer to ADA digital accessibility standards for the most up-to-date compliance requirements.
What is a Table?
A table is a grid of cells arranged in rows and columns that organizes information. If they are not formatted correctly, tables can pose accessibility issues because screen readers often read them in a linear order, which can make the information confusing. Making tables accessible helps everyone understand data and ensures screen reader users can navigate them.
Best Practices
Source: Section508.gov – Data Tables in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDFs
- Use tables for presenting data, not for layout.
- Keep formatting simple.
- Clearly define column and row headers.
- Avoid merged or split cells, which can confuse screen readers.
- Add captions or surrounding text for complex tables.
- For complex tables, use HTML or tagged PDF formats to programmatically associate headers and data cells.
- Run accessibility checkers in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, or PDF tools.
Still Need Help?
Creative Production offers help with document formatting, design, and redesign if needed. Please note, Creative Production cannot ensure accessibility for content created by other users. They may need to re-create a document to ensure accessibly, if you choose to use their services. Costs apply. Submit a ticket to request Creative Production services
IT Solutions primarily supports digital accessibility for academic and course-related materials including document accessibility, captioning and transcription services. Support for other content may be available if time allows, with costs applying to non-course materials. Submit a ticket to request IT Solutions services