Table Linearization

Table linearization is the process of converting a two-dimensional HTML table into a one-dimensional sequence of text for non-visual presentation. When a screen reader linearizes a table, it reads the content cell by cell, row by row, from top-left to bottom-right, stripping away the spatial relationships between cells. This approach is problematic for data tables because the association between a data cell and its row/column headers is lost — users hear a stream of values without knowing which category each value belongs to. Proper table markup (th elements, scope and headers attributes) and screen reader table navigation modes address this limitation by allowing users to query header associations while navigating cells.