Excel

Understand how to create and test for an accessible Excel document.

Meeting the Web Accessibility Standard

If a PDF or office document — like Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint — is published on a publicly facing website, it must:

be accompanied by an accessible HTML version that meets WCAG 2.1 at Level AA and presents the same content with the same structure
meet the requirements in EN 301 549 Section 10 Non-web documents.

If a PDF or office document is published on an internally facing website, no HTML version is required, but the document must meet the requirements in EN 301 549 Section 10 Non-web documents.

For more information on EN 301 549 Section 10 Non-web documents, see Applying WCAG to non-web documents — Publishing PDF and office documents.

What is Excel?

Microsoft Excel is spreadsheet software that organises data in columns and rows. It is part of the Microsoft 365 suite of products, which includes Word and PowerPoint.

Excel documents have a .xls or .xlsx file extension.

The Excel application can also open .csv (comma-separated values) files.

Accessibility issues with Excel documents

Excel documents:

are not accessibility supported for a general public audience — for more on accessibility support, see the Knowledge Area: Accessibility supported technologies
can be difficult to read, navigate and interact with using assistive technologies (AT) like screen reader and screen magnification software

are difficult to read on small screens.

Make an Excel document accessible

It’s currently impossible to make an Excel document fully accessible to all users in a general public audience. To help ensure that an Excel document is as accessible as possible and meets EN 301 549 Section 10 Non-web documents, follow the guidance below.

For more on EN 301 549, see Applying WCAG to non-web documents — Publishing PDF and office documents.

To make an accessible Excel document:

use only 1 table per worksheet
assign each table no more than 1 row of column headers
do not split or merge cells in the table
do not use blank rows or columns in the table
put charts and graphs on separate worksheets
use cell A1 for the first cell in the table, or for the table’s title and instructions on how to read and use the table, chart or graph that’s in the worksheet
give every worksheet a unique name
do not leave any blank worksheets.

Of course, general accessibility considerations like the following also apply:

add alternative text to images
use meaningful link text in links
use sufficient colour contrast between text and background colours
ensure colour is not the only means of conveying information
set the language of the document.

For guidance on creating accessible Excel spreadsheets, see:

For more, see these 3 videos from Microsoft:

Publish datasets in CSV

If the Excel document includes a table representing a dataset, it should be published as a comma-separated values (.csv) file. A CSV file will open in Excel, but also many other viewers and any text editor, making it highly usable and adaptable.

To be publishable as a CSV file, the table must:

have a single row of column headers in the first row
and not use any Excel formulas.

Testing Excel documents