Creating Accessible Microsoft Excel Documents

Make your Excel documents accessible to people with disabilities. Well-structured, accessible spreadsheets are easier for everyone to read, analyze, and maintain.

Microsoft Excel Accessibility Checklist

Workbook Setup

  • Make the file name meaningful (e.g., "december_sales.xlsx")
  • Rename sheets to describe their content (not "Sheet1", "Sheet2")
  • Cell A1 of each sheet should not be empty

Tables

  • Organize data into tables. (Ctrl + T) or (Home → Format as Table)
  • User column headers in the first row of the table.
  • Avoid merged cells.
  • Don't use empty cells to create visual spacing between data.
  • Leaving a cell empty is an acceptable way to represent no data.
  • Don't embed tables within tables

Layout

  • Organize content from left to right, top to bottom
  • We recommend using one table per sheet instead of using empty rows and columns to add visual spacing between tables.
  • Avoid placing unrelated data in different areas of the same sheet

Images & Alt Text

All meaningful images, charts, and graphs, must include descriptive alternative text (alt text) so that a person who uses a screen reader can understand the meaning.

  • Right-click (shift + F10) the image → Edit Alt Text
  • Describe the purpose of the image, not just what it looks like. Keep descriptions concise. Don't start with "image of" or "photo of".

Example: "Line graph showing a decrease in accessibility issues over the last four quarters"

Color

Consider users who are colorblind.

  • Don't use color as the only way to provide information.
  • If you highlight rows or columns with color to provide meaning, you must provide that color's meaning another way.
  • Add a "status" column with text that describes the meaning of the color. (e.g., "Incomplete" for red rows, "Complete" for green rows)

Contrast

  • Text needs sufficient contrast against the cell background color. Aim for a text contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1.
  • Parts of graphics required to understand content must have a contrast of at least 3:1 with adjacent colors.

Links

  • Link text should clearly describe the destination
  • Avoid vague phrases like "click here" or "read more"
  • Avoid long, raw URLs

Example: Visit the NCDIT Digital Accessibility website. 

Accessibility Checker

Microsoft Excel has a built-in tool to help find accessibility issues.

Microsoft Excel, Review, Accessibility Checker
  • Go to Review → Check Accessibility
  • Review and fix issues

Note: Automated tools catch many issues, but a final manual review is essential.

Export Excel to PDF

Thank you for making your Word documents accessible to people with disabilities.

For additional guidance, visit Microsoft's Official Excel accessibility support page.

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