Let's start with the broad, overarching rule: any document you offer for download or use as part of your website falls under your website's umbrella — and therefore must be accessible.
Whether it's a presentation, a Word document, or an Excel file, it must allow users with disabilities to access and understand the information it contains.
When it comes to Excel files specifically, we'll be completely honest: these are highly complex files that can raise a wide range of accessibility issues, each requiring individual attention.
Our advice is simple — if you don't need Excel and can use an alternative, do so. For example, if your content doesn't involve tabular data or calculations and is purely text-based, a Word document is the better choice.
What Needs to Be Accessible in an Excel Document?
Helping Users Navigate the Document
At its core, Excel is one big table.
With that in mind, imagine a blind or low-vision user navigating to cell A13 and then moving to row 14. We need a solution that allows Excel to communicate to screen readers — and announce to the user — that they've moved to cell A14, and so on.
Describing the Purpose of the File
One small but critically important detail is the document title.
Excel itself presents certain challenges when it comes to defining headings, which complicates document accessibility (one of the reasons we recommend avoiding Excel when possible). That said, we can absolutely give the document a clear title that explains its purpose to users upfront.
Excel Sheet Tabs
If the document is divided into multiple tabs, it's important to make the most of that real estate by giving each tab a descriptive, accurate name that clearly reflects its content.
This way, we're leveraging every feature Excel offers to help the document explain itself as clearly as possible for users with disabilities.
Always remember: a blind user shouldn't have to guess where they are or struggle to find their way around. Our job is to make the document as intuitive and practical as possible for them.
Hiding Unnecessary Empty Rows
Excel is notorious for its endless scrolling. But what about a blind user who has no way of knowing that the data ends at row 250? They might scroll to row 300, 400, and beyond — until they suddenly realize they've wandered into an empty, content-free zone.
Using our row 250 example: we should hide all rows from row 251 onward. That way, a blind user won't scroll past the data and get lost in the document.
How to Structure Your Content
It's best practice to start your spreadsheet content from column A, row 1.
This way, a blind user receives the information immediately upon opening the file, without having to navigate left or right on the keyboard to find where the content begins.
If that's not possible, make sure to include a description in cell A1 explaining to screen reader users how to navigate and use the spreadsheet.
Do We Handle Excel File Accessibility?
At USER A, we specialize in website accessibility and document accessibility across all layers and formats — including Excel file accessibility.
We'll be upfront: making Excel files accessible is complex, often tricky, and sometimes requires creative solutions — working with what you've got.
We want to emphasize: if your file is text-based and doesn't require calculations, data tables, or formulas — use Word or another document format instead.
For any questions or consultations, contact us and we'll be happy to help.