Spanning Cells

Issue

It is common to see tables containing unspanned cells that should be spanned to appropriately associate related cells together for screen reader users and to remove unnecessary empty cells.

Remediation Example

For visual users, it's easy to tell that "Major Keys" applies to the first four data rows, for example. But for screen reader users, this association is not explicit.

	TRIAD	USAGE			DOUBLING
		Root Pos.	First Inv.	Second Inv.
Major Keys	ii	yes	yes	no	root
	iii	yes	yes	no	root
	vi	yes	yes	no	root
	vii°	no	yes	no	third
Minor Keys	ii	no	rare	no	third
	III	yes	yes	no	root
	VI	yes	yes	no	root
	VII	yes	yes	no	root
	ii°	no	yes	no	third
	vi°	no	yes	no	third
	vii°	no	yes	no	third
	III+	no	yes	no	third

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th />
      <th>TRIAD</th>
      <th colspan="3">USAGE</th>
      <th>DOUBLING</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th />
      <th />
      <th>Root Pos.</th>
      <th>First Inv.</th>
      <th>Second Inv.</th>
      <th />
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Major Keys</td>
      <td>ii</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>root</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td />
      <td>iii</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>root</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td />
      <td>vi</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>root</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td />
      <td>vii°</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>third</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Minor Keys</td>
      <td>ii</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>rare</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>third</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td />
      <td>III</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>root</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td />
      <td>VI</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>root</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td />
      <td>VII</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>root</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td />
      <td>ii°</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>third</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td />
      <td>vi°</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>third</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td />
      <td>vii°</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>third</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td />
      <td>III+</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>yes</td>
      <td>no</td>
      <td>third</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Captions Footnotes and Source Attributions