Table Caption and Summary are redundant

Table Caption and Summary are redundant — rule summary

Field	Value
Rule code	Table_Caption_Summary_Redundant
WCAG conformance level	A
WCAG success criterion	1.3.1 Info and Relationships
Must be fixed at source	No

Description

Each table should have a caption element that acts as a header title. The deprecated table attribute summary should not be used. We found that this table has both a caption and summary, and that the summary value matches the caption value. Remove the duplicate content provided by the summary attribute from this table to clear the redundancy.

How to fix

Remove the summary attribute, which is unnecessary for most tables. The summary attribute is only used to describe the structure of complex data tables. Also, the summary attribute is deprecated, and may not be supported by all browsers. If a summary is needed, add a regular text element near the table and associate it with aria-describedby.

<p id="table-summary">Column one has the person's name, other columns show the type and order of food preferences.</p>
<table aria-describedby="table-summary">
<caption>Personal favorite foods</caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th scope="col">Name</th>
<th scope="col">Favorite food</th>
<th scope="col">Second favorite food</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Alice</th>
<td>tacos</td>
<td>apple pie</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Brenda</th>
<td>ice cream</td>
<td>pasta</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Chaz</th>
<td>stir fry</td>
<td>hummus</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

For more techniques, see W3C's Tables Caption & Summary Tutorial.