[Kristina] Welcome to Create accessible Excel Spreadsheets. My name is Kristina England. I'm the digital accessibility specialist for the president's office. And I'll be facilitating this training. For our training agenda we'll go over the following six topics. Why accessible Excel spreadsheets matter, creating a worksheet summary and unique worksheet names, table format, best practices, providing equal access to charts and graphs, the accessibility checker and saving your spreadsheet, and, finally, leveraging the accessible Excel spreadsheet checklist.
Before we get started, let's talk about why accessible Excel spreadsheets matter. An inaccessible Excel file excludes many in the disability community. When an Excel file is not made accessible, the disability community can run into color contrast issues, inaccessible graphs and charts, data without the structure needed for blind employees to read it, Et cetera. The disability community makes up at least 26% of the American population.
Many in the disability community are sent inaccessible content on a regular basis, making it hard or even impossible to do their jobs. This includes both non-apparent and apparent disabilities. Due to the constant barriers that disabled employees face, they are more likely to burn out at jobs at a higher rate. In addition, many disabled people do not disclose their disability in the workplace.
As noted in a 2024 Fast Company article, "Many individuals choose not to disclose their disabilities or mental health conditions in the workplace due to pre-existing stigmas or negative repercussions in their daily work environments. This reluctance to disclose creates an environment where many workers with disabilities are just getting by without necessary accommodations. It also contributes to a lack of awareness and understanding among employers about the support that can be provided to set these individuals, the teams that they contribute to, up for success."
When developing content, we should always build with accessibility in mind to include colleagues that may not be comfortable with either disclosing their disability or identifying as disabled. Now let's go over creating a worksheet summary and unique worksheet names. You'll want to add a worksheet summary to each worksheet. The summary should be added to the A1 cell. The summary should include a general description of what can be found on the current worksheet.
For example, this worksheet includes one data table and a graph. The data table begins on A3 and covers 2022 Massachusetts resident enrollment numbers. The graph starts on A15 and provides a line graph representation of the numbers in the table. Make sure your summary is descriptive enough to let screen reader users know if there is more than one table on the same sheet. Now let's go over how to add a worksheet summary to an Excel worksheet.
So I have an Excel spreadsheet open and I'm on sheet 1 of the Excel spreadsheet. I'm going to go ahead and select row 1 of my Excel spreadsheet. Currently in row 1 is my table title for the table that is in this Excel worksheet. I want to add the summary, so I am going to make sure to select that row 1. And I'm going to stay on the Home tab of Excel. And under the Home tab menu, you're going to look for the Insert option. You're going to go ahead and select Insert, the dropdown.
And go ahead and select Insert sheet rows. That's going to add a new row 1. In row 1, I want to add my actual summary. I have copied it. So I'm just going to go ahead and select Control V. And now, my worksheet is summary is in there. And it says this worksheet includes one data table and a graph. The data table begins at A3 and covers 2022 Massachusetts resident enrollment numbers. The graph starts in A15 and provides a line graph representation of the numbers in the table. And that's how you add a worksheet summary.
When creating worksheets within an Excel file, you should also add unique worksheet names. Excel worksheets will default to non-descriptive names, such as sheet 1, sheet 2, and sheet 3. Each worksheet tab should have a unique worksheet name, so it's clear what will be found on each tab. Here are two ways to rename a worksheet. You can either double click the sheet tab and type the new name, or you can use the following keyboard shortcuts. Type Alt+ zero, and then type R, and then type E.
Now I'm going to provide a quick demo of how to update a sheet name in Excel. And so what you want to do is, you want to go down to the sheet name. And here I have sheet 1. I am going to use the first option of how to update it. I'm going to double click the sheet 1 tab. And now that I've double clicked it, I can type in there. I want this to be a descriptive title of what the content is about in this worksheet. In this worksheet, it happens to actually be about the fall 2022 enrollment of Massachusetts residents.
I do have a character limit of 31 characters. So what I'm going to name this tab is Ma underscore, enrollment underscore 2022. So I'm just going to enter that in Ma underscore, enrollment underscore 2022. And then, I can click out of there. And it saves the descriptive name. And that's how you update the sheet name.
Now, let's go over table format best practices to ensure your tables in Excel are accessible. The first best practice to implement is to provide a title for your table. The title should be entered in a cell directly above the table. You should not merge cells to display the title. It should always be outside of the table and above it. After you have added the title, you should set the Title style as a Heading 1.
Now I'll provide a quick demo of how to style your Table title. I have an Excel spreadsheet open. In row 2 underneath my worksheet summary, I have the title of the table that starts off at A3 of my Excel spreadsheet. So in A2 is the title of that table. And what it has for title is Fall 2022 enrollment of Massachusetts residents. I'm going to go ahead and make sure I click on A2. And then, what I want to do is I want to stay on the Home tab of Excel. And I want to look for the cell styles option under Styles in the Home menu.
Go ahead and select that. A drop down is going to appear. And what you want to look for is Titles and Headings. And I'm going to go ahead and select the Heading 1 under Titles and Headings. And now my fall 2022 enrollment of Massachusetts residents is a Heading 1. And that's how you style it within Excel.
The second best practice to implement to ensure you're creating accessible tables within Excel is to format your table as a table. While you might think just entering content into cells indicates to Excel that you are creating a table, the only way to create an accessible table for screen reader users is by using the format as table functionality in Excel. By selecting format as a table, you provide the heading rows and semantics needed for screen reader users to navigate the data in an accessible way.
Now let's go over how to actually format a table as a table. I have an Excel spreadsheet open, and I have a worksheet open. And under that worksheet, starting at A3, is my table. And it's only a two-column table. So I'm going to select A3 through B3. And then, I'm going to go all the way down to A13 B13 because that's where my table ends. Once I've selected it, what I want to do is stay on the Home tab and look for Format as table, that menu option. Go ahead and select that and you'll get style options for your table.
You want to pick a table where the color contrast is good. I usually stick with White Table Style Light 8 or Dark Teal Table Style 9. Or you can go with Dark Green Table Style 11. I'm going to go with the teal. Go ahead and select that. And when I select it, I now have my table is formatted as a table.
And what happens when it's actually formatted as a table now, I get a table design tab. I can go ahead and select that table design tab and confirm I have an assigned header row. The checkbox for the header row is selected. The header row is always the top row of the table. And this is important, again, for screen readers semantics. As long as that checkbox is selected, this is going to be easy to navigate with a screen reader. And so, that's how you format a table as a table in Excel.
And just a note that the accessibility checker can't detect this issue when we get into running the Accessibility Checker. So it's an important one to remember because it will not be able to detect that a table is on your Excel spreadsheet, and it won't be able to tell you that you've forgotten to format it as a table.
Now that you've formatted a table as a table, you can apply the next best practice, which is to add a descriptive table name. A descriptive table name provides screen reader users with a quick way to jump to a table in your spreadsheet. The name cannot have any spaces. The first letter of each word should be uppercase, and it should be descriptive enough to explain what the table does, such as annual with an uppercase A, student students with an uppercase S, enrollment with an uppercase E.
Now let's walk through how exactly to add a table name. What you want to do is select the first cell of your table, so that the Table Design tab appears in Excel. You're going to go ahead and select the Table Design tab. On the Table Design tab, you want to look for the table name field. Go ahead and select that field. And go ahead and change the non-descriptive type name of the table, which is Table 1 in this scenario, to a descriptive name. Again, the first letter of each word of that name should be uppercase. That provides a correct reading to screen reader users.
So I'm going to enter fall with an uppercase F, 2022, and then enrollment with an uppercase E. And lastly, I'm going to enter an MA, uppercase M, uppercase A, for Massachusetts. And now I'm going to go ahead and select Enter. And once I do that, a new table name is saved. And that's how you add a table name in Excel.
The next best practice to follow and to ensure that your table is accessible to assistive technology users is to avoid merged or blank cells. Do not merge cells in your tables. Merging cells prevent screen reader users from knowing how cells relate to rows and columns in a table. Do not use blank cells for formatting purposes. For example, do not add an extra blank row between rows to provide spacing.
Instead, adjust your column and row heights and widths through the Format tab of Excel. If you do have a blank cell due to the fact that there is no data for a specific data set, the optimum experience for users of assistive technology would be to indicate this information directly in the cell with either a 0, null, or no data value.
Do not rely on color alone as the only way to convey meaning in a table. A common, inaccessible Excel practice is to highlight rows of data with background colors to convey a specific meaning for that information. However, using color as the only way to convey meaning leaves out the blind, colorblind, and deafblind communities. Instead, add a column with the data you are trying to convey, such as a priority column with values of High, Medium, and Low.
If you use color as a secondary way to convey meaning, keep in mind the following. Oversaturated yellows and reds can create a vibration effect for folks with reading glasses, vestibular disorders, and the neurodivergent community. You should also test background colors with the WebAIM Contrast Checker, so you do not create readability issues for the color blind and low vision communities.
When providing hyperlinks within an Excel spreadsheet, ensure they are descriptive. Screen reader users can scan hyperlinks with shortcut keys. Hyperlinks that do not provide context of where a blind or low vision person will be sent are not accessible. Links should convey clear and accurate information about the destination. For example, avoid using link text such as Click here, See this page, Go here, or Learn more. This link text is not descriptive. Instead, include the full title of the destination page, such as Work with Links in Excel, The actual title of a Microsoft knowledge article.
Now I'm going to show you how to add a descriptive link in Excel. I have an Excel spreadsheet open. In the A30 cell, I have the word source followed by colon, and then a long URL that is not descriptive. So what I'm going to do is select that A30 cell. I'm going to go ahead and copy the actual full URL. Go ahead and Control C. And then I'll go ahead and delete that URL. And what you want to do is, when you add the descriptive link, you need to add that to a cell to the right of the source label.
I'm going to go ahead to the B30 cell, and I'm going to go ahead and type in my descriptive name. Fall 2022 Student Profile Report. And once I've entered in that information into the B30 cell here, I'm going to go ahead and navigate out of it so that it's no longer in edit mode. And then I'm going to go ahead back to that cell. And what you want to do is once you've selected the cell, you want to make sure you're on the Insert tab in Excel. And you're going to look for the link menu item on the Insert tab.
I'm going to go ahead and select the link menu item, and a pop-up will open. And what I default to is existing file or page with an address field. I'm going to go ahead and Control V to add that URL to the address field. And then I'm going to select OK. And once I do that, I now have a descriptive URL within Excel.
Now, let's go over how to create accessible charts when you are providing charts within your Excel spreadsheet. Here are Chart Design Best Practices. When displaying charts or graphs within Excel, add them directly below the associated data table. Always provide descriptive chart labels. Do not rely on color alone to convey meaning.
When using color as a secondary way to convey meaning, ensure you use gradients for your color palette and, when needed, simple patterns. You can generate a color blind safe color palette by using Chroma.js Color Palette. This palette will be included in the Resources section of this learning path. Stick to familiar and easy to read charts such as pie and bar charts. And always add Alt Text and a chart description.
Descriptive chart label. Best practices to keep in mind. You should provide a chart title. Select the generic chart title and replace it with a meaningful title. If your chart has axes, provide Axis Titles. Chart types that should include axis titles are line charts, bar charts, scatter plots, and column charts. Axis titles provide crucial context about the data being represented on each axis. Finally, provide data labels for both your category and either the percentage or number. This ensures that your chart does not rely on color alone to convey meaning.
Now let's go over the best practices we just covered. So I have Excel open and I have a data table. And below that, I have my chart. And that's already following the first best practice to ensure your chart is below the data table. And what I'm going to do is select that chart. The chart has a title of enrollment numbers. I'm going to make that a little bit more descriptive and call it Massachusetts Resident Enrollment Numbers by University.
I also already have the University names here. However, I don't have the total number of enrollments visible within a data label on this chart. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to select the chart. And at the top of Microsoft, you should have a Chart Design tab. Go ahead and select that Chart Design tab. And then, what you want to look for is the Add Chart element menu item. Go ahead and select that. It's a drop down.
Go ahead and look for data labels, that option. And then you want to go ahead and select Outside End. Once you select Outside End, you now have the total enrollment numbers by university. So for example, UMass says 8,393. Suffolk says 711, and so on. So now it's much easier for me to read this graph. And now I also want to go ahead and add an axis title.
So go back up to Add Chart Element. And go ahead and select Axis Title. I'm going to go ahead and select Primary Vertical. And here I can say universities. And then, if I select again and I want to add an axis title for horizontal, I can now say total numbers, total number of enrollments. And so now I have those axis titles as well. And that is how you make this more accessible from a visual perspective. We'll get into how to make it accessible for the blind community as well in our next few slides.
The only other thing I want to show you is, if this chart did rely on color as a way of conveying meaning from a supplemental standpoint or secondary standpoint, obviously, we don't want to just rely on color alone, and we've solved that issue with the data labels. However, if I did want to change the colors on here. I would go to Chart Design and I would select Change colors, and you'd really want to stay with the monochromatic colors to provide the most accessible color pattern for this. In this case, we really don't need that. So I'm not going to change the colors. I'm going to leave all of the bar lines the same color.
Now, let's talk about why Alt Text matters for charts in Microsoft Excel. Charts load as images in Excel so screen reader users cannot access their content. You should always add Alt Text to a chart in Excel, so that anyone using a screen reader can receive a description of the chart. The Alt Text should convey all the content they would miss by not being able to see the chart, including what type of chart it is.
Here is an example of Alt Text for a chart. Horizontal bar chart showing Massachusetts resident enrollments in fall 2022 at 10 universities, with UMass leading significantly. UMass had 8,393 enrollments. Suffolk had 711. Northeastern had 540. Boston University had 511. Boston College had 496. Tufts had 355. Clark had 263. Harvard had 254. Brandeis had 220. And MIT had 83.
Before I show you how to add Alt Text to a chart, I did want to mention that if you feel like the Alt Text is too long, keep in mind that Alt Text reads in a long string for screen reader users. They are not given a pause in the content. You can actually put the Alt Text as a chart description below the graph, and then put in the Alt Text chart description is below. And that way the person can read it at their own pace. Again, if it's very verbose, think about putting it below the graph rather than in the Alt Text, and just note in the Alt Text that a chart description is provided below the graph.
Now let's walk through how to add Alt Text to a graph in Excel. I'm going to go ahead and select my graph in Excel. Massachusetts Resident Enrollment Numbers by University. Once I select it, a Chart Design tab and Format tab appear in Excel. You want to select the Format tab. Once you select the Format tab, go ahead and look for the Alt Text menu item. Select the Alt Text menu item and an Alt Text panel will appear that says, how would you like to describe this object in its context to someone who is blind or low vision?
You have a box below that. I'm going to go ahead and Control V and add in my Alt text. And it's the Alt Text I already described in the last slide of the training. And so, I have applied that Alt Text. You do not have to click Save. You just close the Alt Text panel and that Alt Text is applied to the chart.
Now let's go over the Accessibility Checker and Saving your Spreadsheet. You should always run the Accessibility Checker as the final step in your development of an accessible Excel spreadsheet. The important thing to note is the accessibility checker in Excel can only be run after you have formatted a table as a table. It will not register any issues with the table until you have done this step. It will actually register as your spreadsheet being fine because it cannot detect a table.
So that's a really important note. Never run the Accessibility Checker at the beginning and rely solely on the Accessibility Checker. Follow the steps in this training, and then run the Accessibility Checker as a final step. Also, keep in mind the Accessibility Checker won't catch everything, but it can catch several accessibility issues you may have missed, including any graphs or charts that are missing Alt Text, any auto generated Alt Text that hasn't been updated, any missing table headers, and, finally, warnings about merge cells.
Now I'll show you how to run the Accessibility Checker in Excel. What you want to do is go to the Review tab in Excel. Once you select the Review tab, you will want to look for Check Accessibility. Go ahead and select that. And the accessibility assistant will open in a panel to the right. My accessibility assistant says looks good. No issues found. And that's because I followed the best practices in this training to make this spreadsheet. Keep in mind, though, that if you did not design a table as a table, that will still pass. So it's important to follow either this training or the interactive checklist we provide within the Resources section of the learning path.
Before you save your Excel file, always remember to update File Properties. The File Properties behind the scenes stores metadata that is read to screen reader users and is also used for website searches. As people tend to use a previous file to create a new file rather than start from scratch with a template each time, when you do not update the File Properties, you run into either a file name that does not match the current file, or if you have never added a file name behind the scenes, a blank file name will appear instead. Neither option is a great experience for screen reader users and will impact people finding your content through a website search.
Now let's go over how to update your file properties in Excel. You want to select the File menu item in Excel. And when you do, you'll have submenu items. Go ahead and select Info. Once you select Info, an info page will open with various options, including Protect Workbook, Inspect Workbook, Version History, Manage Workbook, Reset Changes Pane, Browser, View Options, and, finally, Properties. Properties is where you want to focus. You want to go to the title field. In this case, my title field is empty because this is a new file. So I'm going to select Add a title.
And I'm going to provide a descriptive title. So for my descriptive title, I'm going to say Sample File for Microsoft Excel Accessibility Training. And once you're done entering the title, just go ahead and select the Return key or Enter key on your keyboard. And once you do that, title is now saved. And the other piece you want to look at is the author. Especially if you've copied a file from another file, make sure the author is the correct author. If it's not, go ahead and change it. And that's how you update the metadata within a file so that the file properties are correct for both screen reader users and for website searches.
Always provide a descriptor file name for your Excel file. When you are ready to save your file, ensure your file name is descriptive enough to remember and find. This will improve the overall experience for screen reader users as well as anyone who downloads your file. If you do not provide a descriptor file name, the file will be hard to find if anyone downloads it and tries to find it at a later date. For example, when I save the final version of my Excel file, my file name will be Sample File for Microsoft Excel Accessibility Training. The file name will be clear and descriptive, and it will also match the title in the file properties, providing a consistent naming experience for anyone trying to find the file.
When saving your file, avoid saving your Excel as a PDF. Unless the content is proprietary, there is no reason to save it as a PDF. Saving it as a PDF will come with additional remediation on the Adobe Acrobat side. In addition, PDFs are not as secure as they appear. Unless a PDF is completely locked down as read only, it can easily be converted back to an Excel file or another format.
If you completely lock it down, you block screen reader users from accessing the content in your file, thus defeating the purpose of making the Excel accessible. One other thing I'd like to know is, if you feel like you need a read only table that people can navigate with assistive technology, consider making that table HTML on a website rather than converting it to a PDF.
As we wrap up this training, I wanted to remind folks to leverage the Excel Accessibility Checklist. There is a lot to learn about Excel accessibility, and it can be easy to forget a step. We've created an interactive checklist you can save as a Favorite and reference when creating an Excel spreadsheet. You can access the checklist through the LinkedIn Learning Course now that you have completed the video portion of this training.
Thank you so much for completing this training. If you have any questions about accessible Excel spreadsheets, please feel free to reach out to the Digital Experience team. Thank you.