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Re: Accessible Excel files

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From: Steve Green
Date: Feb 13, 2024 10:46AM

Although you can apply some of the WCAG success criteria to Excel files, many are not applicable and others need to be interpreted in the context of an entirely different technology. It's got very little in common with website accessibility testing.



There are two main issues with keyboard navigation:



1. The grid of cells does not have a defined reading order. This is different from linear file formats like websites, PDFs, Word documents etc.. For Excel files, the solution is to put everything into column A except for two-dimensional content like tables. If you put things in other columns, blind screen reader users won’t find them.

2. Floating elements such as images, charts, Text Boxes, form controls etc. do have a linear focus order, but it has no relationship with the grid of cells. In most cases we recommend either not using floating elements at all, or marking them as decorative and providing their content in the grid of cells.



There is much, much more to it than that. We have a 4-hour training course on creating accessible Excel files – I’m not trying to sell it, but it gives you an idea of how much there is to learn. Much of that information is on the web, but it’s fragmented and some of it is wrong.



If you follow all the guidelines, Excel files can be reasonably accessible, but my experience has been that they almost never are if the accessibility wasn’t intentionally designed in. The layout often needs to be changed substantially, and Excel’s constraints mean it’s sometimes just not possible to make a file accessible.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd




-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Claire Forbes
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2024 4:34 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessible Excel files



Yes, thank you! I was just looking for best practices to test with a keyboard alone and ensure it meets the compliance marks for "2.1 - Keyboard Accessible"



-----Original Message-----

From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >> On Behalf Of <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >

Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2024 11:24 AM

To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >>

Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessible Excel files



Good morning Claire

Exactly what is it that you were trying to test in an Excel spreadsheet?

Because there are various ways of navigating tab usually switches you from cell to cell in a row. Enter switches you from cell to cell in a column.

But what are you looking for? And are you using a screen reader or just trying to test with a keyboard?

Dean Vasile





617-799-1162



> On Feb 13, 2024, at 10:56 AM, Claire Forbes < <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >> wrote:

>

> Good morning, everyone!

> For product testing I have been using Excel spreadsheet checklists from HHS.gov (which one of you helpful folks directed me to). I'm really struggling working through the accessibility review of an Excel document - the check list has items that align with WCAG's 2.1 - Keyboard Accessible.

>

> [cid:image001.png@01DA5E6A.B29A6C60]

>

> I have no idea how to test this as using the tab key because while "tabbing" in Excel, it continues to table alllll the way right, to the seemingly endless empty/unused table cells. For a keyboard test, is it acceptable to use the down arrow + tab to move through the content?

>

> Thank you!

> Claire

>

>
> > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives

>