hope you are doing great. So, for one of my recent projects I need to do something really similar to the page apple built for comparing iPad models. (https://www.apple.com/la/ipad/compare/) the web needs to be accessible and, unfortunately, this part has already been built but a11y wasn't really taken into account and now we need to refactor it. So I went through the apple web an saw that their layout is somehow similar to ours. Also, I tested using NVDA and I think this is what I need. Every time, before reading the column value, NVDA reads the column header that is set to the selected product. That way, the user can know what product has that feature. Then I tested on Jaws and found that it is not reading the headers every time before the value. That is not good because the user is not able to know the product that has the feature being read. Is there a configuration that needs to be activated to have the same behavior from NVDA into JAWS? Jaws is important for the client.
Thanks
First of all you should make sure you're using <th> and maybe <thead> correctly.
According to WebAIM's guide to testing with JAWS, that reader offers extra shortcuts to read related headers.
To skip to a table, press the T key. To navigate between cells, hold down Ctrl + Alt and use ↑/↓/←/→ to move from cell to cell. Ctrl + Alt + 5 (on the numeric keypad) will read the row and/or column headers for the current cell.
This behaviour is the product designers' decision, so you shouldn't try to overwrite it.
I would also recommend involving actual screen reader users in your testing.