TABLE_COMPLEX_STRUCTURE

Rule ID: table-complex-structure
Ruleset: axe-pdf 1.0
User Impact: Moderate
Guidelines: WCAG 2.0 (A), Section 508

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Compliance Data & Impact

User Impact

Moderate
Minor
Critical

Disabilities Affected

  • Blind
  • Deafblind

Standard(s)

  • WCAG 2.0 (A)
  • Section 508

WCAG Success Criteria [WCAG 2.0 (A)]

  • 1.3.1: SHOULD: Info and Relationships

Section 508 Guidelines

  • 1194.22 (g): Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.” and “(h) Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers.

How to Fix the Problem

To check that a converted document with tables has correct table tagging:

  1. In the View menu, select Navigation Panel, then select Tags.

    Table in Adobe Acrobat Pro showing the Tags tab opened to display the table tags. All table cells are marked TD.

  2. On the Tags tab, open the table row that contains the header cells, as shown on the image above.

  3. Select on the first data cell and select Properties...

  4. On the Tags tab in the Properties dialog, use the Type dropdown to change Table Data Cell to Table Header Cell.

  5. Repeat for all the table header cells in the first table row.

    Table in Adobe Acrobat Pro showing the use of the Tag Properties dialog to change data cells to header cells

Resources

Other Resources

You may also want to check out these other resources.

Refer to the complete list of axe 1.0 rules.

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