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|+ Table caption adds the caption "Table caption" to the top of the table. A caption is optional, but recommended according to accessibility guidelines. |-adds a new row, which should be followed by the same number of cells found in other rows. Note, rowspan="2" and colspan="2" can be used on cells to span multiple rows and columns.
If you use tables for two-dimensional graphics you might discover a "feature" in HTML that promotes grey hair. It can affect both rows and columns, depending on the use of either rowspan or colspan. In this 7-row table three cells have the height of 3 rows, but the total is 6 rows. Where is row 4? There is a row 5-4!
A table is an arrangement of columns and rows that organizes and positions data or images. Tables can be created on Wikipedia pages using special wikitext syntax, and many different styles and tricks can be used to customise them.
For columns, one uses |colspan=n | content, whereas for rows, one uses |rowspan=m | content. In the table code, one must leave out the cells that are covered by such a span. The resulting column- and row-counting must fit. Tables can have cells spanning multiple rows, using |rowspan=n. The number of rows must be indicated with each use of rowspan.
Every row must have the same number of table data cells, occasionally table data cells have to span more than one column or row. In this case the tags colspan and/or rowspan are used - where they are set to a number.
Old screen readers, text-to-speech systems and text browsers like Lynx do not support rowspan and colspan. The result can be very confusing for users of these technologies. It's part of the responsibility of the developers of those user agents to provide good table support in their software, and to improve their UAAG conformity.
This also applies to other coding approaches, such as divs with CSS styling, or rowspan and colspan HTML cell attributes. Nesting data tables with header cells also makes it difficult for assistive readers to parse them sensibly, and should be avoided.
The advice about rowspan/colspan is supposed to be ignored. Or should I say, I wrote it because some users at the accessibility project believed there was an issue with rowspan/colspan. I wrote it to explicitly say: the issue with rowspan/colspan is negligible, and not considered to be an issue by WCAG 2.0.