Implementing Accessibility

There’s nothing quite like breaking your arm to energize your interest in accessibility. I should know because about a month and a half into drafting this book, I broke my right arm in a mountain biking accident. Fortunately, I was able to type even before the surgery that was needed to put my arm back together, so I didn’t have to do a deep dive into voice dictation and other measures. Regardless, even before my accident, I had planned to lead off this book with a discussion on accessibility because I’d realized that anything that makes a spreadsheet easier for people that are color-blind or require assistive technologies also makes the spreadsheet easier for all users. Further, it’s not just spreadsheets that can feel inaccessible. You may sometimes feel that Excel itself is impenetrable. Over the course of the entire book, my goal is to demystify as many aspects of Excel as will fit in the pages I have available.

In this chapter, I’ll discuss design strategies that will improve accessibility for all users, and point out certain Excel features that can improve accessibility within workbooks, but also within the program itself.

This chapter will delve into the following areas:

• How to make Excel more accessible regardless of your abilities
• Implementing accessibility within spreadsheets
• Using Excel’s Accessibility Checker feature
• Accessing Excel’s Accessibility Reminder add-in
• A brief overview of spreadsheets that are inaccessible because of design strategies