Improve the accessibility of Excel tables: A practical guide

When creating a Microsoft Excel workbook, be sure to take the necessary steps to make sure everyone has access to it, especially if you plan to share the workbook with others. This guide will share some practical tips to help you achieve this.

Use a descriptive worksheet name

One way to improve accessibility of Excel workbooks is to change the name of the worksheet. By default, Excel worksheets are named Sheet1, Sheet2, Sheet3, etc. This non-descriptive numbering system will continue when you click " " to add a new worksheet.

There are multiple benefits to changing the worksheet name to make it more accurate to describe the worksheet content:

• Provide clarity and context: Descriptive worksheet names make it easier for anyone who accesses your workbook to browse their content.
• Auxiliary Screen Readers: Most screen readers read Excel’s worksheet names, so changing these names to names that better represent their content means people with visual impairments will have a better experience.
• Make a formula clearer: A formula that references a cell or named range in another worksheet contains the name of the reference worksheet. Therefore, formulas using context sheet names (rather than Sheet1, Sheet2, etc.) are easier to understand and parse.

Related Reading: How to reference the same cell in multiple Excel worksheets (3D reference)

Avoid manual references in Excel, which is time-consuming and error-prone.

To rename a worksheet in Excel, double-click the relevant tab and replace the existing text with the new worksheet name. Additionally, to leave more space for context sheet names, click and drag the lower ribbon handle to the right.

In addition to being descriptive, following these tips can further optimize your Excel worksheet name and improve accessibility:

• Brief and clear: Shorter names are easier to handle and use.
• Use Underscore: If your sheet name must contain multiple words, use underscore (_) instead of spaces to show the relationship between words in all contexts.
• Keep the name simple: stick to the letters, numbers and – as I explained in the previous point – underline.
• Strive for consistency: Choose a named style for all sheet tabs. In my example above, I chose a single word that starts with capital letters.

Format tables with and name

Frankly speaking, unformatted tables in Excel are a nightmare when it comes to accessibility. In this example, row and column headers are not easily distinguishable from the main data, cross-row tracking is a challenge, and, from a demonstration point of view, it is also a headache!

To convert this data to an Excel table, first make sure the top row of the data contains column headers, making your table easier to interpret. Then, select any cell in the data, and in the Style group on the Start tab of the ribbon, click Format as Table.

Then, choose styles with striped rows, as these styles can help people track rows in the table from left to right. Also, select a different style to its title row than the other rows.

When selecting a table style, make sure that the data source is correct and that My Table has title is selected in the Create Table dialog box, and then click OK.

Next, in the Table Design tab, check the Table Style Options group to see if you can further improve the readability of your data. In my case, I checked the "first column" to distinguish it from the main data, and I unchecked the "filter button" to make the title row less crowded.

Add alternative text to the graphics

Alternative text (alt text for short) is a brief description of the graph that can help people with visual impairment fully understand its content. Screen readers read alt text aloud, meaning that those who can't see the details of the graphics can still understand what it contains.

Related Reading: Why I Always Add Alternative Text in Microsoft 365 Applications (and how you can do it too)

Make your graphics easier to access.

In Excel, you can add alternative text to shapes, pictures, charts, SmartArt, and any other graphics you use.

Use clear fonts

Several factors need to be considered when considering which fonts are used in Excel can make information easy to read.

Related Reading: What fonts should you use in Excel?

Optimize the readability of data.

Generally speaking, Excel is not a program where you should use fancy fonts, as its purpose is to render the data clearly and enable useful analysis. So using fonts that mimic handwriting, fancy strokes and serifs, or otherwise styled fonts will only reduce the accessibility of the spreadsheet.

You should also choose fonts that are easy to distinguish between letters and numbers. For example, while some fonts have a much wider letter O than the number 0, others make this difference less obvious. For example, the letter O of the Franklin Gothic Book is only slightly wider than its number 0, while the number 0 of Georgia looks like the lowercase letter O. On the other hand, the difference between O and 0 for Aptos, Arial, Baskerville Old Face, Garamond, Rockwell, Segoe UI, Terminal and Times New Roman is much bigger.

The same problem should also be considered when considering how fonts can distinguish between lowercase letters i, uppercase letters L and numeral 1. For example, the lowercase letter L in Courier New is surprisingly similar to the number 1, while the uppercase letter i of Arial is the same as the lowercase letter L. The best fonts to distinguish these three characters are Aptos, Tahoma, Verdana and Comic Sans MS, although I hope you don't use the latter in a formal spreadsheet!

Another thing to remember when using accessible fonts is whether the numbers and text look compressed. In other words, narrow fonts with smaller spaces between characters than usual spaces are usually harder to read. Avoid using narrow or fine versions of standard fonts in Excel—such as Aptos Narrow—and do not use fonts that are narrow by default—such as Agency FB, Niagara Engraved, Onyx, and The Hand.

Personally, I stick with Excel's default font Aptos because overall it satisfies all of the above conditions. Its characters are easy to distinguish, it uses simple letters and numbers forms, and is easy to read when zoomed down to smaller sizes or zoomed in to high resolution.

Other Excel accessibility tips

While the tips I currently offer will greatly improve the accessibility of Excel workbooks, there are some other small things you can do to complete the spreadsheet and make it the best for everyone:

• Add text to cell A1: Since the screen reader starts reading an Excel worksheet from cell A1, add something valuable to this cell, such as a worksheet overview or description.
• Make hyperlinks have context: If you are using hyperlinks in an Excel workbook, make sure they clearly state where the reader will take after clicking the link. Words like “Click here” have no value, and words like “Click here to see more information” (where “first table” is a hyperlink) are more useful.
• Use Chart Elements: If your workbook contains charts, make sure they are well formatted and contain elements such as chart titles, axis titles, and data labels.

Related Reading: How to Format Charts in Excel

Excel provides (too many) tools for making the graphics look right.

• Named Scopes: In addition to following my previous suggestions on naming tables, name other scopes in the workbook so that they are easy to find and identify.
• Avoid empty rows and empty columns: If you have to have rows or columns that do not contain data, add some text to help people using screen readers understand the structure of a spreadsheet, such as "empty rows".

Accessibility checker using Excel

Once you try to make your workbook as accessible as possible, use Excel’s built-in accessibility checker to make sure you’re not missing anything.

Open the Review tab on the ribbon and click the upper half of the Check Accessibility button.

Then, in the Accessibility pane, view any suggestions for making the spreadsheet more accessible. If any issues occur, click on the relevant card for suggestions on how to fix them.

In addition to changing the workbook to make it easier to access, it is worth utilizing other good practice methods to make a spreadsheet easy to read, such as using consistent formats, using annotations to avoid excessive text, and sharing spreadsheets as PDFs to lock in layouts.

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