To make rows and columns accessible in Excel and Word, follow these steps:

On the first cell of the row containing the column headings, press the Applications key or Shift+F10. Arrow up to “Define Name” and press ENTER. Type in the word “Title1” (with a capital T and the numeral 1, no spaces). JAWS will now recognize this row as the column titles and Row 1 as the row title. If you want only row titles, type “RowTitle1” instead. For column titles only, type “ColumnTitle1”. The number helps distinguish between worksheets. For example, in a client’s workbook, you might use Title1, Title2, and Title3 to ensure functionality across all worksheets.

To create accessible tables in Microsoft Word, open the document containing your table(s). If the table has both row and column headings, place the insertion point in a cell where the row and column containing the headings meet. Open the Insert menu and choose Bookmark. Type “Title” and press ENTER. If the table has only row headings, place the insertion point in any cell within the column containing the headings. Open the Insert menu and choose Bookmark. Type “RowTitle” and press ENTER. For tables with only column headings, place the insertion point in any cell within the row containing the headings. Open the Insert menu and choose Bookmark. Type “ColumnTitle” and press ENTER. Do not place a bookmark in each cell that contains a heading. JAWS recognizes all cells in the marked row or column as a heading. Microsoft Word does not allow two bookmarks to use the same name. If there is more than one table in your document, add incremental numbers to the end of the bookmark name, such as “Title_1,” “RowTitle1,” or “ColumnTitle1.”