Complex header associations need headers attribute Accessibility Checkpoint

Description

For data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers, use markup to associate data cells and header cells.

Help

Include id attributes in th cells and headers attributes in the associated td cells, or include scope attributes in th cells.

Applicable standards

• WCAG 2.0 (Success Criteria: 1.3.1 level A)
• WCAG 2.1 (Success Criteria: 1.3.1 level A)
• WCAG 2.2 (Success Criteria: 1.3.1 level A)
• Section 508 (2017) (Success Criteria: 1.3.1 level A)

Note: Section 508 Refresh (2017) checkpoints are equivalent to WCAG 2.0 level A and level AA checkpoints.

Change history

• 5.38 Jul 2020 Changed rule ID from AccWcag1-5.2.1 to AccHtmlTableComplexHeaders.
• 5.20 Jan 2016 Fixed false negative on tables without TBODY.
• 3.0 Dec 2008 Now triggers WCAG2 issue.
• 2.0 Dec 2007 Now triggers Section 508 issue.
• 1.0 Feb 2007 Added.

This page describes a web site issue detected in HTML documents by SortSite Desktop and OnDemand Suite.

Rule ID: AccHtmlTableComplexHeaders