Overview The purpose of this document is to help content creators understand the reason for creating accessible Microsoft Office Excel 2007 documents for a website. A consistent convention must be used throughout the document, and a note should be provided indicating the direction of the text flow, indicating whether it is top to bottom or left to right in order to get an accessible version. The Excel spreadsheet must be created with logical header rows and/or header columns properly marked up in the spreadsheet document for it to be as accessible as possible. Data Tables All row and column headers must be identified. Headings must be clearly separated from other text so that it is easily understandable. Headings Column headings should appear in the same reference columns as the data. For example, if a column heading is placed in Column D, then the data should follow in column D. If possible, keep a column heading to one cell so that it can be easily reviewed, and screen reader users can configure their program to read a specific heading cell for a column. Headings spanning two vertical cells in a column are much harder for a screen reader user to read and understand. As a general rule, the same visual appearance can be obtained by adjusting cell formatting Define Row and Column Titles To create row and column titles, move to the first cell in the column or row containing the titles. For column titles, highlight each cell with a column title in one of the following three ways: Click each cell individually while depressing the control or shift key Drag the cursor from the first cell to the last cell containing the title while depressing the left click button on the mouse Click the number of the row on the left side of the worksheet in which the column titles appear. Choose this method if there are more columns than what appears on your screen. For row titles, highlight the cells in the column in which the row titles appear.
Overview The purpose of this document is to help content creators understand the reason for creating accessible Microsoft Office Excel 2007 documents for a website. A consistent convention must be used throughout the document, and a note should be provided indicating the direction of the text flow, indicating whether it is top to bottom or left to right in order to get an accessible version. The Excel spreadsheet must be created with logical header rows and/or header columns properly marked up in the spreadsheet document for it to be as accessible as possible. Data Tables All row and column headers must be identified. Headings must be clearly separated from other text so that it is easily understandable. Headings Column headings should appear in the same reference columns as the data. For example, if a column heading is placed in Column D, then the data should follow in column D. If possible, keep a column heading to one cell so that it can be easily reviewed, and screen reader users can configure their program to read a specific heading cell for a column. Headings spanning two vertical cells in a column are much harder for a screen reader user to read and understand. As a general rule, the same visual appearance can be obtained by adjusting cell formatting Define Row and Column Titles To create row and column titles, move to the first cell in the column or row containing the titles. For column titles, highlight each cell with a column title in one of the following three ways: Click each cell individually while depressing the control or shift key Drag the cursor from the first cell to the last cell containing the title while depressing the left click button on the mouse Click the number of the row on the left side of the worksheet in which the column titles appear. Choose this method if there are more columns than what appears on your screen. For row titles, highlight the cells in the column in which the row titles appear.
AccessibilityBestPractices_MSExcel2007.docx