Creating Accessible Excel Spreadsheets

Do You Need to Make Your Excel Spreadsheet Accessible?

It is best to answer this question, before engaging in a potentially long, complex process of creating a new or revising an existing spreadsheet for accessibility.  Here are the cases where you do and do not need to make your Excel spreadsheet accessible:

• Needs to be Accessible
  • Intended for the Public
  • An Accommodations Request has been made
• Should be made Accessible
  • Spreadsheet has Limited Use (i.e., course materials handed out to students, report for a larger group to review, etc.)
    (NOTE: If there is any doubt in your mind that someone at some time may need your spreadsheet in an accessible format, you might as well make it that way from the beginning)
• Does NOT need to be made Accessible
  • Spreadsheet is private and will only be used by yourself

General Recommendations

1. Name your worksheet(s). Default sheet names like "Sheet1" make navigation through the workbook more difficult for people with disabilities.
2. Avoid creating complex tables; they are less accessible:
   
3. Avoid merging/splitting cells. This can cause a screen reader user to not know how cells relate to rows and columns.
4. Avoid using blank cells for formatting purposes. Try using other formatting tools such as adjusting column width or height.
5. When customizing the look of your spreadsheets, go for high-contrast. The Table Styles pane in the Table ribbon have many high-contrast options to dress up the presentation of your table(s).
6. Include a title before any set of data in a spreadsheet. This title can be in the row above the first row, preferably in cell A1.
7. Make sure all data rows and columns are labeled as in a data table. Use white text to include headers that might be distracting to sighted users.
   
8. Put some text into cell A1. Preferably this should be the title of the data set, but if that is not possible, it should information about the structure and location of data, even if the color is set to white, as in the previous recommendation.
9. Add an “End of Table” message in the row after the last row of a data table row. The text can be in white.

Images, Charts and SmartArt

Any visual elements, such as images, charts and SmartArt, should have alt text to describe these visual elements to low-/no-vision users.

• Images—Right-click on your image > click Format Picture... > click on the Size & Properties icon > in the Alt Text section, type a meaningful description of your image in the Description field.
• Charts—Right-click on your image > click Format Chart Area... > click on the Size & Properties icon > in the Alt Text section, type a meaningful description of your chart in the Description field.
• SmartArt—Right-click on your image > click Format Shape... > click on the Size & Properties icon > in the Alt Text section, type a meaningful description of your SmartArt shape in the Description field.

Tables

As mentioned in the recommendations, avoiding complex tables will help you when it comes to making your spreadsheets accessible.  Also, despite that you may have your spreadsheet looking like a beautifully presented and organized table, it is nothing more than data cells until you define them as a table:

1. Select the cells you want to include in the table:
   
2. On the Insert tab in the ribbon, select Table
3. Select the My table has headers check box and select OK:
   
4. If needed, type new, descriptive names for each column in the table

Other Considerations

• Use headings if you need to organize the structure of your spreadsheet—Similar to other MS Office programs, use the Style pane in the Home ribbon to define headings and styles for your cells
• Delete any unused Worksheets
• Use the Accessibility Checker—Click on the Tools top menu in Excel > select Check Accessibility