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I have a question

One of Josh's students a year or two ago updated a page and added a caption to tables that resembles an alt-text for images. See https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_Chemistry/Introductory_Chemistry/02%3A_Measurement_and_Problem_Solving/2.04%3A_Significant_Figures_in_Calculations

The problem is that text was added as the <caption> tag and that shows up as a title in the tables. The author of the page doesn't want that to be shown. I cannot find an alt-text tag for html tables (odd to me) where I would move that text to. I figure that means I have to switch to aria. So... what is the recommendation about how to handle this?

 

Answer

There used to be a summary attribute for tables, but it is not supported by HTML 5.  It may no longer be supported by assistive technology either.

Instead of providing an off-screen text description, i.e., a version of alt-text, the strategy is for the content author to use tables with simple layout structures, and to provide clearly labeled columns and or rows. Then, similar to complex images, for a table that may require additional explanation, the strategy is for the content author to provide the description in the text before the table to assist all users.

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