diff --git a/docs/requirements.txt b/docs/requirements.txt
index 44af373ac2..84e7ec6a52 100644
--- a/docs/requirements.txt
+++ b/docs/requirements.txt
@@ -2,3 +2,5 @@
 
 # use md instead of rst
 recommonmark
+# needed for markdown table support
+sphinx-markdown-tables
diff --git a/docs/source/conf.py b/docs/source/conf.py
index aad458a9b3..368d7cc294 100644
--- a/docs/source/conf.py
+++ b/docs/source/conf.py
@@ -28,9 +28,14 @@
 # extensions coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom
 # ones.
 extensions = [
-    "recommonmark",
+    'sphinx_markdown_tables',
 ]
 
+source_parsers = {
+    '.md': 'recommonmark.parser.CommonMarkParser',
+}
+
+
 # Add any paths that contain templates here, relative to this directory.
 templates_path = ["_templates"]