Bevi,
While I agree that layout tables should be avoided, I have to clarify something you said "Per all of the accessibility standards (WCAG, PDF/UA, EPUB), tables can contain only material that makes sense to be in a matrix of columns and rows, like a spreadsheet."
You are mistaken.... https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/F49.html
"Although WCAG 2 does not prohibit the use of layout tables, CSS-based layouts are recommended in order to retain the defined semantic meaning of the HTML table elements and to conform to the coding practice of separating presentation from content. If a layout table is used, however, it is important that the content make sense when linearized."
In @Y.v.e.s case, the content cannot be read out of sequence so therefore would be logical in its current state. That said... I would definitely take the moment to linearize that table and pull the content out of the Table structure. Not to mention that it is just not semantic to have that content in a table. But telling people it is against WCAG is not the truth.
Respectfully,
Dax
... View more