188体育

Use tables to present data or information that can be organised in a structured way. This could consist of numbers, text or statistics.

A table should make it easy to:

• understand the relationship between different types of data

• examine a range of possibilities at a glance

Do not use tables for cosmetic reasons or when you can use normal page structure to present the information, for example headers or lists.

See instructions on how to publish tables.

Here is a table showing the number of different animals in 3 different farms.听

Woodchurch, Moat and Jenkey are the column headers. Together they form the header row.听听

Sheep, Cows and Pigs are the row headers. Together they form the header column.听

To make sure your table is accessible, you must have:

• a descriptive header for every column

• one header row only听

• only one item per row cell

• 鈥榥o data鈥� or 鈥榥ot applicable鈥� instead of empty cells

You should not have any split, merged or empty cells. The only time you should have an empty cell is the top left cell. This is used if you have a header row that does not need a column header.听 If you鈥檙e copying and pasting a spreadsheet or a table from a document, remove any split or merged cells and fill in any empty cells.听Empty cells make it difficult for users of assistive technology in particular to navigate the table.

Use headers

Tables must always have a header row that includes a header explaining the content of each column in your table.

Headers help users understand the table鈥檚 structure.

Table headers should:

• accurately describe the content in the relevant row or column

• be unique and not repeated within the table

• be capitalised

You can use links in row and column headers.

If your table also has a row header, use the # header Markdown. The row headers must be in column one. In the example below, the 3 different types of fruit are row headers, and Alice and Ben are column headers.听

| | Alice | Ben |

|--- |--- |--- |

|# Apples | 0 | 3 |

|# Bananas | 2 | 3 |

|# Pears | 0 | 0|

As shown below, both the first row and the first column are marked as headers. As the row headers do not need a column header, the first cell is empty.听

In the example below, 鈥楾otal score鈥� is the column header for the row headers. In this example, the top left cell is not empty as the row headers need a column header.

| Total score | Grade | Description|听

|---------|---------|---------|

|# 0-30 | Fail | Your performance is unsatisfactory |

|# 31-42 | Grade B | You鈥檒l stay on the approved driving instructors (ADI) register |

|# 43-51 | Grade A | You have shown a high standard of instruction and you鈥檒l stay on the ADI register|

Watch how screen readers use headers to make table content accessible. You can find the transcript in the video description on YouTube.

Carry out any calculations, for example include totals or differences between amounts at the end of columns or rows.

You must only have one item per cell. If there are multiple items per cell, an assistive tech user will find it difficult to understand your table.听

For example,听

A screen reader user will not be able to understand the different positions held at each company.听

Instead each company and position should have a cell.听

For example,

The size of a table affects how easy it is for people to read and understand it.

The minimum size for a table should be 2 columns and 3 rows (including a column header), but if your table is this small it may be better as normal text.

A large table will be difficult to navigate, especially with a mobile device. On 188体育 you can see about 4 or 5 columns and 10 rows without scrolling depending on how much text you have in each cell. Check your table in preview mode to make sure it is not too big.听 Avoid using large tables and if possible, break them down into smaller tables.

If you鈥檙e dealing with a huge amount of data that cannot be split up, it might be better presented as a CSV (spreadsheet).

You should avoid publishing complex tables. Your table must only have one header row and / or header column. If your table has more than one header row or column, you should try to break it down into smaller tables. If you cannot break it down, make sure that the headers in your single header row or column are descriptive and unique.听

For example, the table below shows information about livestock over 2 periods, from 2021 to 2022 and from 2022 to 2023.听

There are 2 header rows in this table - one for the years and one for the feed cost, newborns and profit. A screen reader user will not be able to understand which of the column headers refers to which year group. For example, a screen reader would read 鈥楥ows, newborns 20, cows newborns 15鈥� - the user would not be able to tell which year the number refers to.听

In this case, you could have 2 separate tables or use descriptive and unique headers as shown in the example below.听

Put important information first

Put the information that most people are looking for at the top or in the first few columns.

Convert tables to barcharts

In HTML publications you can convert tables into barcharts which are accessible to users with screen readers. Users can switch between the table and bar chart view.

Keep text in cells concise and clear, and follow the 188体育 style guide. You can depart from 188体育 style to:

• truncate the names of months to save room, for example Jan, Feb

• use a dash to show a span between numbers, for example 500-900

• use numerals throughout (do not use ordinals, for example first, second, 10th)

If you do not need to use exact numbers, consider rounding large numbers with decimal places, for example 拢148,646,000 = 拢148.6 million.听

It is best practice to use right-aligned numbers if they are in the same column and need to be easily compared.听