Add Summary Text to Tables

You can provide summary text for crosstabs, lists, repeater tables, and table objects. This text provides context for the entire object to make your reports accessible. When a screen reader encounters one of these objects in HTML report outputs, it reads the description that you added to the object.

The table summary is not displayed in visual Web browsers. Only screen readers and speech browsers use the summary text. The summary text is usually read immediately before the table caption.

You can add translations for the text to support users in multiple languages. When users run a report, IBM® Cognos® Business Intelligence uses the summary text in the appropriate language.

If you use tables for report layout, leave the summary empty to indicate to screen readers that the table is used exclusively for visual layout and not for presenting tabular data.

Before you begin

For the report output to contain the summary text, you must enable the accessibility features for the report. For more information, see Enable Accessible Report Outputs.

Procedure

Select the crosstab, list, or table.
In the Properties pane, click the select ancestor button and select the Crosstab, List, Repeater Table, or Table object.
Tip: You can also click the container selector (three orange dots) of the container to select it.
Double-click the Summary Text property.
Select Specified text and click the ellipsis button.
In the Default text box, type a description for the object, and click the add icon .
In the Languages dialog box, select the languages that apply to your text.
Double-click a language and type the translation of the text for each language.