OSCQR – Standard #25

Tables are accompanied by a title and summary description.

Review These Explanations

If you have tabular data that you need to display, you will need to provide a title and summary description in order to guide learners using screen readers through the topic before the screen reader accesses the actual data in the table.

Be sure that the title appears first, the description second, and the table last. The description should include the word “table” so that learners using screen readers will know that a data table will be coming up next in the page sequence.

All data tells a story. You can choose to explain the data itself to your learners, detail why the data is important, ask open ended questions, or summarize each category. Either way, you need to provide an introduction and context to support all learners.

Refresh Your Course with These Ideas

General Suggestions

As you are creating this content, read it aloud to see if it makes sense in sequence.
Follow the guidelines for creating an accessible table (see entry #26).
Write a narrative description of the table and include a link to a downloadable version of the table.
Listen to how your table appears in a screen reader. Download a free version of JAWS to understand how course content is accessible to the visually impaired student using this tool.

Explore Related Resources

Sample Non-Accessible Data Table in Screen Reader

Listen here to the way a screen reader processes a table that is not accessible.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is developed through the W3C process in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world, with a goal of proving a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally.

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