rahimabdi
commented
5 months ago The only scenarios I can think of:
- A blank origin cell (first cell in the table) that requires an explicit accessible name because it may not be clear it has been intentionally left blank; all ATs will announce "blank" but this relates to the a11y best practice of ensuring table header cells are non-empty so perhaps a name could clarify that
- Cells or row/column headers that have a visual presentation conveying meaning. For example, a column's cells have been shaded in a darker color to visually indicate that they are "not applicable" although they are empty. Besides sr-only text, how might the author convey that those cells are "not applicable" (e.g.,
<td aria-label="not applicable">?
scottaohara
spectranaut
aardrian
ARIA says that cells and column/rowheaders can get name from content. But HTML AAM doesn't list this.
TBH, i'm failing to understand a good use case for allowing a cell to be named from author (more so for a standard table - slightly less so for a grid). I say this because, at least from my quick testing, unless the cell is properly keyboard focused - the author provided name (aria-label) is not always relayed to screen readers. and in cases where it is, if it includes the visible content of the cell, it can result in redundant announcements of the information (first as the name/part of the name, and again as the cell content).
Even for grids though, it can be strange to have a cell that has a name of X when focused, but have different content of Y when you actually navigate 'into' the cell. Anecdotally speaking, I've heard negative responses to this sort of behavior, since it means a screen reader user has to be aware they need to interact with a grid in both application mode AND reader mode, to truly understand the content of the grid.