Tables versus Grids

Hi folks,


A customer recently reported usage of a CSS Grid as a violation of WCAG 1.3..1: Info and Relationships.  The grid displays audit trail information for who accessed a record, when, and what they viewed. It is tabular in nature.  Their assertion is that the "grid" role is inappropriate for /read-only tabular data/ and only a semantic table is appropriate.



My question for the list:

Is it a violation of 1.3.1 to use a grid (role=grid) instead of a table to display tabular data?



Additional information:

The currently-used grid semantics align with this spec in the ARIA authoring guidelines and displays read-only data.

Table specs: https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.1/#table

Grid specs: https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.1/#grid



Personal speculation on my part:

This usage fails for things like technique H51, link below, but there's no similar technique for a grid element. Grids, being newer, may just not have been used enough to warrant a technique?  However, according to the specs for Tables and Grids, either can be used to display read-only data but it's not a hard requirement. In those specs, it seems the only "hard" requirement is to NOT use tables when cell elements are interactive.



H51 link: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/html/H51.html

Will Ringland
All Epic Accessibility
Accessible design is Epic design.
He/Him