Digital Accessibility for Excel
Explore the tips below to help make your Excel documents accessible to everyone.
Excel Accessibility Guidelines
Creating accessible Excel files ensures that everyone, including those using screen readers, can understand and navigate your data. This page outlines key steps for making spreadsheets clear, structured, and accessible.
- Cell A1 must have text within it, as it is the first cell read by screen readers
- Good practice would be to provide important information about the worksheet in cell A1
- Each worksheet must have a unique and descriptive name
- For example, "Sheet 1" is not descriptive
- You can rename a worksheet by right-clicking the name and selecting Rename
- Tables must be made using the Insert Table option in Excel under Insert on the ribbon
- If your table has headers, be sure to check "My table has headers" when inserting a new table
- Tables headers should have descriptive names
- Tables should have a maximum of one column header and one row header
- Table names should be added to the Table Design section
- Select Table Design in the ribbon, then in the Properties section add the Table Name. Keep in mind that spaces are not allowed in this field.
- Include only one table per worksheet if possible
- Do NOT use merged cells. See more information below on this.
- Do not use merged cells within a table, as this can lead to accessibility issues for screen reader users
- Do not use color alone to convey information within charts. This is particularly important for pie charts. See the section below for more information.
- Provide alterative text for all images, charts, shapes, etc. next to the item. All text and data within an image, chart, or shape must have a text alternative, whether that is through a table or a text description near the item.
- For more information visit UM'S Guide to Writing Alternative Text
- Do not use color alone to convey meaning, as not everyone can see color.
- For example, if you say the important cells are highlighted below in green, then not everyone will be able to know which cells are important. A fix for this would be having "*" within the important cells as well.
- This also applies to charts and graphs. If a pie chart only uses color to identify the different sections, it is not accessible to everyone. This can be fixed by adding text labels next to each section.
- Ensure your text has sufficient color contrast with the background. The automatic accessibility checker in Excel can help check for this.
- Ensure all of the text within a cell is visible.
- This can usually be done with text wrapping or changing the size of the cell.
- Blank cells in tables should be avoided if possible, as these can be confusing for screen reader users
- "N/A" is an example of what could be put in a blank table cell to make it accessible
- Blank rows or columns should be used sparingly
- Do not use blank sheets
- Avoid frozen rows or columns if possible, as this can lead to issues for screen reader users
- Avoid hidden rows or columns if possible, as these can be confusing for many users
- Users should be alerted if a data filter is in use.
- This can be done by inserting a note in the column header or as plain text above the table.
- Excel's built-in Accessibility Checker can be found on the Review tab in the Ribbon, then select Check Accessibility within the Accessibility section.
- This tool can help check for color contrast issues, missing table headers, merged cells, and descriptive sheet names.
- However, this tool does not catch everything, so a “no issues found” result doesn’t guarantee full accessibility.