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Sometimes, when we view a PDF table with Acrobat Pro's Table Editor tool, the red/purple lines that delineate the table cells don't align correctly.
Here's one way to correct this problem so that it doesn't throw off screen readers and other assistive technologies.
When a table doesn’t appear correctly in Acrobat’s Table Editor, the red/blue outlines and shading on the table cells don’t match the actual structure.
Expecting to see something like this:
You may see something more like this:
This error prevents remediators from selecting the <TH> cells to add the required Scope and Span properties to them. It also causes the table to be mis-read by screen readers.
Instead of using Acrobat’s Table Editor, edit the <TH> and <TD> tags manually in the Tags Panel.
For each <TH> and <TD> cell:
This method won't clear up your table's appearance in Acrobat's Table Editor, but it should now read correctly with screen readers. Before publishing the PDF, be sure to test your table with screen readers and other AT (assistive technologies.)
Check this blog for other tutorials on remediating PDFs.
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