Creating Accessible Excel Spreadsheets
Best Practices for Creating Accessible Excel Spreadsheets
1. Structure
Headers: Use clear, descriptive headers for all columns and rows. Avoid merged cells in header rows.
Table Design: Use the built-in Table feature (found under the Insert tab) to create structured tables. This enables assistive technologies to recognize and navigate the data.
2. Descriptive Names
Sheet Names: Rename worksheets with meaningful names (e.g., "[Program Name] Q1" instead of "Sheet1").
File Names: Follow Records Management file naming conventions and record creation guidance to ensure the record is properly stored for retention and applied with required metadata.
3. Use Alt Text for Visual Elements
Visual elements like pictures, shapes, symbols, or icons have accessibility requirements.
Images: Add alternative text (Alt Text) to describe images clearly. Right-click the image, select Edit Alt Text, and provide a meaningful description. It should be a description of the image itself and what it is representing.
Shapes, Icons, and Illustrations: Similar to images, these require Alt Text. Avoid decorative-only elements unless they serve a clear purpose. If the element is decorative, mark it as “decorative” or “artifact”. Screen readers cannot skip alt text so limiting non-substantive visual elements' alt text is more productive for users requiring screen readers.
Symbols (e.g., checkmarks or arrows): Should be avoided. If symbols must be used, a text explanation is still required.
Charts: Always include Alt Text for charts, summarizing the data they represent. Use direct labeling and avoid legends if possible. The underlying data should also be presented in a table format for full accessibility. It is acceptable to link to the data in another source or webpage. If hosting the data online on bellevuewa.gov, the data should be stored in PDF format.
4. Use Accessible Formulas
5. Use Proper Formatting
Font Choices: Refer to the city’s Branding Guidelines for acceptable fonts.
Color Contrast: Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background. Tools like the WCAG Color Contrast Checker can help verify compliance. Refer to the city’s Branding Guidelines for acceptable chart and table colors. Print out a chart in black and white to see if there is enough contrast between background and labels.
Avoid Color Reliance: Do not rely solely on color to convey information. Include text or symbols as supplementary indicators.
Labels: Use direct labeling when possible. Legends are taxing to our working memory. They will be a challenge for people with some cognitive impairments.
6. Handle Comments Thoughtfully
Comments and Notes: While Excel allows for adding comments and notes, they are not consistently accessible to screen readers. If critical content is included in comments, integrate it directly into the spreadsheet instead.
Conversion to PDF: Comments are not typically preserved as accessible content during PDF conversion. All critical information must be part of the main spreadsheet content.
7. Enable Navigation Features
Hyperlinks: Ensure hyperlinks have descriptive text (e.g., "Company Annual Report" instead of "Click Here").
Named Ranges: Use named ranges to help users quickly navigate to specific sections.
8. Run Accessibility Checks
When to Use Excel as the Ideal Platform
Use Excel for organizing and presenting tabular data that involves calculations, comparisons, or structured analysis. Examples include:
Financial reports
Data analysis
When Not to Use Excel
If your content primarily consists of paragraphs of text, graphics-heavy layouts, or narrative storytelling, Excel is not the ideal platform to structure your content. Instead, consider:
Microsoft Word: Ideal for reports, letters, or documents requiring long-form text.
PowerPoint: Suitable for presentations with visuals and concise bullet points.
Design Service Request: For visually complex layouts like multi-page books or other public-facing outreach materials, please submit your request to ITD’s design team to ensure your request meets branding and accessibility requirements.
Things to Avoid
While Creating the Spreadsheet:
Merged Cells: Avoid merging cells, especially in data tables, as they disrupt screen reader navigation.
Complex Layouts: Avoid overly complicated designs, such as nested tables or irregular structures.
Excessive Blank Cells: Avoid large gaps of blank rows or columns, as they confuse assistive technologies.
Relying on Visuals: Do not reference pictures, shapes, or symbols without descriptive text.
When Converting to PDF:
Skipping Tags: Ensure accessibility tags are enabled during PDF conversion. Go to File → Save As → PDF, then check "Options" and select "Document structure tags for accessibility."
Flattened PDFs: Avoid saving the PDF in a way that rasterizes text (e.g., as an image-only PDF), which makes it unreadable by screen readers.
Untested PDFs: Test the converted PDF using an alternate PDF viewer tool. Re-test your PDF using another tools accessibility features (e.g. Adobe Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker) to ensure compliance.
When publishing charts/graphs online:
Do not post graphs, charts, or tables as an image from your excel spreadsheet online. Any image cannot have flat text to be accessible. Text should be actual, selectable text. Instead, rebuild your table, chart, graph in Drupal using the available option under paragraph type.