This page will present the option of publishing your Excel document to the Web as an HTML document and discusses the potential accessiblity issues that occur when using this method.
Excel provides several options to assist you when saving your document as a Web page, the first of which allows you to title your Web page, a useful means of describing the spreadsheet.
If you were to publish your spreadsheet to HTML, Excel would create a very complex set of HTML pages that represent your document. An example of what this spreadsheet would look like as an HTML document is shown in Image 2.
Notice that the content of the page looks nearly identical to the Excel version; there are tabs at the bottom of the web page to allow navigation between various pages of the spreadsheet (in this case, the three pages of the document).
However, this version of the spreadsheet is not accessible, and in fact contains over 100 violations of the W3C standards for accessibility. To give you a glimpse into the complexity of the HTML that Excel produces, Image 3 displays a small view of the main spreadsheet file; notice that it is filled with complicated script and xml tags that would make it almost impossible to use by assistive technology.
The document does not display properly on all major internet Web browsers; for example, this is how the spreadsheet would appear in the popular Mozilla Web browser (see Image 4):
Notice that the graphs overlap, covering up some of the information. Also, the pie graph overlaps some of the text below it, making the text unreadable.
Utilizing the "Save as a Web Page" (or Save as HTML) is a quick solution if you do not have to consider accessibility issues, but if you want to achieve true accessibility of your documents, you should delve deeper into finding the best solution for all of your users.
The next page will discuss the HTML method for Excel.
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