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There are strong grounds for not using tables, and our recommendation is for you to avoid them as far as possible. With that said – below are some good tips for those of you opting to create your own tables.

Creating an accessible table

Remember to only use tables to present data, not for layout purposes.

To ensure tables are accessible, you need to check that the HTML code is correct. A number of points that need to be fulfilled are set out here, with an example of a correctly designed table below.

  • Add a caption for the table. In the example below: “Longest rivers of the United Kingdom”.
  • Clarify the content of a table in text form by writing a summary. In the example below: summary= “The table shows the longest rivers of the United Kingdom”.
  • Each table you insert should have headings for each column/line, specified by “th” in the code. These should be created using the correct code, scope=”col” for column headings and scope=”row” for row headings.

Exempel

Longest rivers of the United Kingdom
River Length (kilometer)
River Severn 354
River Thames 346
River Trent 297
River Great Ouse 230

HTML code for the table example - pastebin.com

Contact

Contact Lund University´s accessiblity expert by sending an e-mail to:
tillganglighet [at] kommunikation [dot] lu [dot] se (tillganglighet[at]kommunikation[dot]lu[dot]se)

You can also join the team "Nätverket för webbpublicister vid Lunds universitet" that has a channel for discussing web accessibility. Join the team and go directly to "Webbtillgänglighetskanalen" (in Swedish) on Microsoft Teams