Tables Self-Paced Micro-Course

Tables Overview

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Tables Simplify Complex Relationships

Tables provide a means of presenting complex information in a manner that makes it easy to comprehend and identify relationships between the data.

MS Word Online does not support the creation of accessible tables, so you will need to use your locally-installed version of MS Word to make your tables accessible.

Keep it Simple

When making our tables accessible, it is important to keep our tables simple and not merge cells or nest tables/cells inside each other.

With a simple table, it is easy to maintain accessibility by simply formatting the header cells at the beginning of columns and rows, and ensuring that these header cells contain descriptive labels relevant to the data that follows in the preceding cells.

Header Cell for Column 1	Header Cell for Column 2	Header Cell for Column 3	Header Cell for Column 4
Data	Data	Data	Data
Data	Data	Data	Data

When tables contain merged cells and nested tables, each cell must be uniquely identified and associated with the appropriate header cell. MS Word does not provide a means of doing this, so it is recommended that you keep your tables simple- for the sake of clear communication as well as for accessibility.

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

Explain how screen-readers interpret tables without accessible formatting.
Identify steps required to create an accessible table in Microsoft Word.
Design an accessible table in Microsoft word.