Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD)
Web Development
Web Developer Guidelines
Visual Design Recommendations

Checkpoint 2.3 - Core

Data tables are marked up using the <caption> element where appropriate

WCAG 1.0 Priority 3

WCAG Guideline 5. Create tables that transform gracefully.

A caption is used to visually title a table. A table caption describes the nature of the table in one to three sentences.

A caption may not be necessary if a table is preceded by a regular heading (for example <h5>) element or the title attribute on the <table> element is used to describe the nature of the table in a few words.

Requirement

Provide a caption for data tables if no other information is present which visually describes the table.

Checking Tool

  • Firefox - Web Developer's Toolbar: Information > Display Table Information
  • Internet Explorer - AIS Toolbar: Structure > Simple Data Table information

Information Source

The original source of this information is located on the W3C web site  (www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-HTML-TECHS/#table-summary-info)

 

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