HELP/ADVICE NEEDED. Testing Excel Accessibility guidelines

[cmc89]

Hi everyone,

Like the title says I'm in need of some advice and help regarding the accessibility of Microsoft Excel. What I've to do is investigate the accessibility of a web office application and then compare it to its desktop application counterpart.

I've chosen Google spreadsheet as the web application and, as you know Excel as the desktop application. Testing these accessibility guidelines will be part of an experiment. I'm beginning to panic as I don't use Excel a lot.

I've read up on the the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 but I'm struggling to come up with some basic tasks in Excel in which I can test these accessibility guidelines.

Any suggestions? Any advice would be very much appreciated.

 

[tlowry]

This seems like a very complex and worthwhile project. To begin with, Excel is a development tool used to create applications. I presume that you are interested in developing guidelines for applications; not the development environment. As such, there are two basic ways of interacting with the user:
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

Worksheets and Forms

<o></o>
Within each there are various ways to interact with the user;
<o></o>

Worksheet
Cells:
There are two “texts” associated with each cell:

These texts may be utilized in Accessibility Guidelines
<o></o>
There, are, of course other objects associated with worksheets:
Controls, Lists, Tables and others
​

<o></o>

Forms:

A form is a UI that contains controls (which also may contain controls)
Each control has a varying number of text fields associated with it.
​

So here is my suggestion:
<o></o>

Start by getting a list of what can be on a worksheet or/and a form.
<o></o>
Take a look at one from each and go down the list of WCAG 2.0 specification and see how it can be applied I suggest the Cell from the Worksheet and the TextBox from the form.
<o></o>
<o></o>
<o></o>
<o></o>
​

<o></o>

 

[cmc89]

Thanks for reply.

My scenario is that the user will have to input the values of a companys profit, for every quarter in the last five years.

Quarter 1 , Quarter 2, Quarter 3, Quarter 4
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009

The values to be inserted into the spreadsheet will have been provided to the user from a sheet. The user will have to calculate basic calculations such as the total profit and average for each year. Then the user will use the forecast function to forecast the sales for the next three years after 2009, based to the previous values in the table.

Once all of this information has been calculated, the user will have to display the data in different charts and graphs.


What I have managed to do for one accessibility guideline, is document the keyboard shortcuts to insert the information into the spreadsheet, in the specific font sizes etc and display it in a 2D column.

Any suggestion on what else I could do?

 

[cmc89]

bump

 

[tlowry]

Do the cells have comments?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
<o></o>
Does it work with the Windows Magnifier program?<o></o>
<o></o>
Is the user prevented from entering data in the wrong place?<o></o>
<o></o>
Is invalid input accepted?<o></o>
<o></o>
Is the “completeness” of data checked and indicated as complete?<o></o>
<o></o>
Can the user change the headers?<o></o>
<o></o>
How often is the data backed up?<o></o>

 

[cmc89]

Do the cells have comments?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
<o></o>
Does it work with the Windows Magnifier program?<o></o>
<o></o>
Is the user prevented from entering data in the wrong place?<o></o>
<o></o>
Is invalid input accepted?<o></o>
<o></o>
Is the “completeness” of data checked and indicated as complete?<o></o>
<o></o>
Can the user change the headers?<o></o>
<o></o>
How often is the data backed up?<o></o>

Thanks Tlory. Really appreciate your help.