A couple of years ago Roger Hudson and I put together some data tables that we asked people to test. The tables used different accessibility features and we were keen to see which ones people found the most effective.
The results from these tests helped us prepare the article – Accessible Data Tables, which concluded with:
“At this stage, it appears that id and headers are the most effective way to make complex data tables accessible. Although id and headers are slightly more difficult to code than scope, the apparent poor screen reader support for scope means that this is probably not an effective accessibility option.”
In the last two years, the world has moved on; screen readers have improved and we’ve received a number of suggestions about how to improve our original tables. As a result, we have now prepared a new page, “Data Table Accessibility Test Update“, with some different tables.
We would greatly appreciate any feedback about the accessibility of these tables – in particular which ones are more or less accessible for screen reader users and why.