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3 Steps to Improve Excel Spreadsheet Accessibility

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Tim Dixon
Head of IT Architecture

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Tim Dixon
Head of IT Architecture

As a screen reader user, I find Excel documents challenging to navigate and understand. While there have been developments over the last few years with enhancements in Excel and screen readers to make the more accessible, nothing can substitute the spreadsheet author making slight changes to improve accessibility. There are 3 steps to improving your Excel documents:

  1. Name the sheets with useful names
  2. Provide an Index sheet listing all other sheets and their purpose
  3. Use Cell A1 to provide information about the sheet.

These are slight changes that will help all users of your Excel spreadsheet and are easy to implement.

For more context on why and step-by-step instructions, read Excel Accessibility - Blog - Finnberrys

Thank you to Nikki Berry for the excellent blog post.

Understanding what is in a workbook and being able to get from worksheet to worksheet is important. One of the biggest challenges in Excel, is that it is very visual. Have you ever thought about how a blind person would navigate it? A screen reader will read out information but as the content creator, you have to set up that information first.
finnberrys.co.uk/...
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Tags

excel, accessible document, accessible excel, document accessibility, english

Get in touch

Avatar
Tim Dixon
Head of IT Architecture

Get in touch

Avatar
Tim Dixon
Head of IT Architecture

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