CdkTable defaults to role="grid" when it should probably default to role="table"

[Wildebrew]

Incorrect accessibility markup for A.M. tables

Based on These table examples

All examples uses the ARIA grid markup

• role="grid" on the container
• role="gridcell" on regular table cells

This is misleading at best and can cause major screen reader user issues at worst.
The grid role is meant for a two-dimentional layout of interactive elements, such as a spreadsheet or a datepicker.
It is not intended for use with static/normal tables, including sortable static tables (where clicking the column headers can sort by that column), not even for tables with one or two action buttons per row (e.g. "delete" or "more info").

To fix, do one of 2 things:

Remove the ARIA markup

(all instnaces of the role attribute).
The underlying HTML markup is correct table markup.

Replace grid roles with static table roles

• Replace role="grid" with role="table"
• Replace every instance of role="gridcell" with role="cell"

This would be sufficient. Other role attributes (columnheader, rowheader, row and rowgroup) are equally valid in a table and grid structure.

[Splaktar]

Please submit Angular Material and CDK questions here and issues here. This repo is for AngularJS Material.

I have transferred this issue to the correct repository for you.

[Splaktar]

From https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.2/#table:

The table role is intended for tabular containers which are not interactive. If the tabular container maintains a selection state, provides its own two-dimensional navigation, or allows the user to rearrange or otherwise manipulate its contents or the display thereof, authors SHOULD use grid or treegrid instead.

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Our Material tables can be non-interactive in certain configurations, but the most common use case is that the table and it's cells are interactive. This includes sorting, paging, filtering, tool buttons, and the ability for cells to contain interactive content like inputs, selects, checkboxes, buttons, etc.

[jelbourn]

Yeah, the original intent of the cdk-table is that it is the fully interactive role="grid pattern. However, over time we've seen that people do often use it as a regular role="table". We should consider changing the default and making it easier to swap between the two.