Add more testing (manual or automated) for data tables

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

When doing testing I’m not seeing anything that validates or suggests validating table headers. For a data table, if there are no headers, this is a major problem most of the time. It’s also probably good to explain what kinds of headers make sense. Sometimes you only need column headers, but in a lot of cases tables need row headers so a user can browse from one row to the next and hear some context.

There’s also nothing about making sure things like captions are effectively (I’d like guidance on just what makes a good table caption in the first place).

Describe the desired outcome

I’d like to see more in-depth explanations of data tables. I’d like pass/fail options for making sure data tables have headers and that those headers make sense. If headers are given in an invisible way (e.g., via the headers attribute), the accessible header needs to have a pass/fail option. Captions should have a pass/fail that they properly describe the table (in whatever way captions are meant to be used). All of these things should have a section in AI that explains to us what we should be looking for and how to find it (probably via accessibility web tools?)

Describe alternatives you’ve considered

For the moment I’m just checking headers myself and shimming fail notes in AI where they are at least tangentially related, but without good guidance it’s easy to forget to check, or to check the wrong thing.

[jechols]

I finally managed to get this installed and tested, it looks like a major improvement! Thanks!

[msft-github-bot]

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