Missing id's in a table when checking in Acrobat

​Hi @Frans v.d. Geest ​@Rudi Spitzers,

A useful distinction between simple and complex tables is:

• Simple tables contain a single column header row and/or a single row header column, with no merged or spanned header cells. The relationship between data cells and their headers can be determined directly from the table structure.
• Complex tables contain multiple column header rows, multiple row header columns, merged/spanned header cells, nested headers, or other structures where header relationships cannot be reliably inferred from the structure alone.

InDesign automatically generates IDs for complex tables, where explicit associations between data cells and their corresponding row and column headers are required. This helps screen readers correctly identify and announce the applicable headers during table navigation.

For simple tables, InDesign intentionally does not generate IDs because they are typically unnecessary. Screen readers can determine the row and column header context directly from the table structure. This behavior was adopted based on feedback from accessibility experts and standards discussions to avoid adding unnecessary ID/Header associations when the relationships are already programmatically determinable.

This approach is consistent with the intent of accessibility standards such as PDF/UA and WCAG, which require header relationships to be programmatically determinable, but do not require explicit ID/Header associations for every table. Such associations become necessary primarily for complex tables.

Could you let us know whether you are experiencing any actual accessibility issues with the generated PDF? For example, are screen readers unable to identify the correct row or column headers, or is Acrobat or PDF accessibility checker(PAC) reporting a specific accessibility error related to the missing IDs? If the table is structurally simple and assistive technologies are correctly announcing the headers, then the absence of IDs in Acrobat is expected behavior and should not, by itself, be considered an accessibility issue

Thanks.

Rama,

Hi ​@Rudi Spitzers,

Thanks for reporting this and for the additional testing shared by Frans.

I’ve reported the behavior to our product team for further investigation. I’ll update this thread once I have more information from the team.

Thanks for your patience!

Abhishek

Hi Rudi, it seems pretty random, you need at least AND Row headers AND column headers for this to, sometimes, work. In my testing I got assigned ID’s on a table, then on another table I didn’t. You are not overlooking things, it seems the programmers did ;-)