Headings in data tables - an advantage for screen reader users?

Updated: 30 August 2017

In the context of the test of a public services portal that lists many services in a data table, the question came up whether it adds or takes away from screen reader accessibility when the names of the services in cells are marked up with headings mark-up (in addition to the column header markup). Would that just create confusion, or afford quicker access for screen reader users calling up a list of headings or using headings shortcuts rather than table navigation?

A possibly important note on the data table mark-up is that in the service listing we tested (and reproduced in this example), the rows are made focusable by using tabindex="0" on the tr elements. There is actually a link to the respective service in the last column (not reproduced here) which can be triggered using ENTER (but is not announced as link).

When traversing the table tab by tab, the entire row content is read out rather than just the 'heading' for each service - but as that comes first, this may not be a practical problem because users can advance to the next service when they have identified that it is not the one they are after?

Data table without headings example

Data table with h3 headings example