
When it comes to accessibility on your website, there is a lot to keep track of. Iowa State University has set a policy for all public-facing websites to achieve a 95% overall accessibility score by August 1, 2025. Many of the potential issues are taken care of behind the scenes by your CALS/LAS Web Team, but there are certain things website editors need to be aware of if they want to keep their tables accessible for all visitors.
August 1, 2025
The university’s public-facing web page content must achieve a 95% higher score using web evaluation software (Siteimprove) with automatic scoring and no serious errors.
Tables are meant to display related data with associated column and row headings. A sighted user will scan the table and headings for cues to understand what the data is showing. Visitors who cannot see these visual cues will use assistive technology that detects the table structure and allows them to navigate the data in an organized way. If tables do not have a logical structure and headings, the information can become garbled. Using the proper structure for tabular data also ensures your information is presented well on mobile devices.
Below are five things to remember when creating a table on your website.
- Your table should be used for tabular data, not to improvise the layout on your page. It may be easy for a sighted user to ignore the table structure, but a visitor using assistive technology cannot.
- Each cell of data should be associated with header cells: either row, column, or both. When a table uses headers, screen readers announce the associated header before each data cell. Here's an example:
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Morning | Yoga | Jog | Strength Training | Yoga | Jog |
Evening | Cycling | Walk | Jog | Walk | Walk |
The "Accessible, Weekly Workout Routine" table above is accessible because it has a header row and column. The table could be read out loud by an assistive device as follows:
"Monday Morning - Yoga, Tuesday Morning - Jog, Wednesday Morning - Strength Training..."
Here's an example of a table that is only using regular table cells, with heading information not designated as headers:
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
Morning | Yoga | Jog | Strength Training | Yoga | Jog |
Evening | Cycling | Walk | Jog | Walk | Walk |
The "Inaccessible, Weekly Workout Routine" table would be read as follows:
"Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Morning, Yoga, Jog, Strength Training, Yoga, Jog, Evening, Cycling, Walk, Jog, Walk, Walk."
See how the absence of headers changes the experience for someone who is not sighted?
Learn how to designate header content in our tables tutorial.
- Captions are not required, but they are strongly encouraged for labeling the table's purpose. In the examples above, we use "Accessible, Weekly Workout Routine" and "Inaccessible, Weekly Workout Routine" to help delineate between what each set of data is showing, and we are able to call out which set of data we are referencing in a simple and concise way. With the caption, a nonsighted user can make the decision on whether to go through the data in the table or skip it. Without the caption they will be forced to go through part of the table in order to learn whether it is relevant to them.
Learn how to add a caption to your table in our tables tutorial. - Images should be labeled with alternate text. This is an accessibility standard across all web content and should not be forgotten when adding images to tables.
- Another accessibility standard that should not be skipped when creating tables: links should be given descriptive text instead of pasting the full URL. If you simply paste a URL into your table cell the experience with a screen reader will be poor as it will read out "H T T P S colon slash slash..." whereas if you create a link with descriptive text, it will read the descriptive text which is far better for your nonsighted visitor. Here are two poor examples and a good example:
More
https://www.inside.iastate.edu/article/2024/06/06/greatlinks
Find more on choosing descriptive text for your links from Inside Iowa State
Using these five tips when creating tables on your website will ensure that all your visitors understand and benefit from the content you have to share. If you have additional questions or want the CALS/LAS web team to review your table for accessibility, email websupport@iastate.edu. We're happy to help!