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<caption>

Give a table title that screen readers announce

— 1 min read

  • HTML
  • accessibility
  • semantics
  • tables

<caption> — The table title

The <caption> element is the title of a <table>. It is placed immediately after the opening <table> tag and describes the table content for all users.

When to use it

You have a table and you want to provide context before the user dives into the data. Prefer <caption> over a <p> placed above the table: <caption> is programmatically associated with the table, not just visually adjacent.

What you gain

Accessibility: screen readers announce the <caption> when the user enters the table. Without it, the user discovers the table content cell by cell without knowing what it is about. An adjacent <p> is not read automatically.

Code example

<table>
  <caption>Browser support for the dialog element (2026)</caption>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th scope="col">Browser</th>
      <th scope="col">Version</th>
      <th scope="col">Support</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Chrome</td>
      <td>37+</td>
      <td>Full</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Firefox</td>
      <td>98+</td>
      <td>Full</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Further reading