Without <th>, a screen reader cannot associate a cell with its column, so the table is read as a meaningless sequence of values.
- Free, no signupNo account, no card
- No AI in the score986 deterministic rules
- Nothing publishedYour scans stay yours
- Answers in secondsQuick scan, no browser
How this rule is weighted
- Importance
- 5 / 10
- How much this matters relative to other rules.
- Confidence
- SPECIFICATION
- A standard says so: HTML, WCAG, an RFC or Google's own documentation.
- Severity
- warning
- How the finding is presented when it fails.
- Scoring
- Counts
- A failure costs points in its category.
Impact is importance multiplied by the confidence tier’s weight — SPECIFICATION 1.0, RESEARCH 0.7, EMERGING 0.3, EXPERIMENTAL 0.1. Two rules backed by the same class of evidence therefore always carry the same weight, which is what makes the score reproducible rather than hand-tuned.
Questions about this rule
- Does A11Y_TABLE_HEADERS affect my score?
- Yes. It is an importance 5 rule at SPECIFICATION confidence, so a failure costs 5 × 1 points of impact in the Accessibility category before that category is normalised to 100.
- What does SPECIFICATION confidence mean?
- A standard says so: HTML, WCAG, an RFC or Google's own documentation. Confidence is a declared tier rather than a per-rule number, so every rule backed by the same class of evidence carries the same weight - which is what makes the score reproducible instead of hand-tuned.
- How do I check A11Y_TABLE_HEADERS on my own site?
- Paste your URL into the box above and it runs only this rule, usually in a couple of seconds. It is also included in the Accessibility checker and in a full scan.
Tags
- accessibility
- tables
Related Accessibility rules
- Body is not aria-hiddenaria-hidden on <body> or <html> removes the entire page from the accessibility tree, making it completely unusable with a screen reader.A11Y_ARIA_HIDDEN_BODY
- [role="img"] elements must have alternative textEnsure [role="img"] elements have alternative text Evaluated against the live rendered page by a WCAG rule engine, so it only runs on a full scan.A11Y_AXE_ROLE_IMG_ALT
- <audio> elements must have a captions trackEnsure <audio> elements have captions Evaluated against the live rendered page by a WCAG rule engine, so it only runs on a full scan.A11Y_AXE_AUDIO_CAPTION
- <blink> elements are deprecated and must not be usedEnsure <blink> elements are not used Evaluated against the live rendered page by a WCAG rule engine, so it only runs on a full scan.A11Y_AXE_BLINK
- <dl> elements must only directly contain properly-ordered <dt> and <dd> groups, <script>, <template> or <div> elementsEnsure <dl> elements are structured correctly Evaluated against the live rendered page by a WCAG rule engine, so it only runs on a full scan.A11Y_AXE_DEFINITION_LIST
- <dt> and <dd> elements must be contained by a <dl>Ensure <dt> and <dd> elements are contained by a <dl> Evaluated against the live rendered page by a WCAG rule engine, so it only runs on a full scan.A11Y_AXE_DLITEM