RE: Accessibility of Excel documents

> How does everyone on the list sit with the idea that there is a
> link to an Excel document for those who can access it through the
> application, and a page with a separate link that is an
> accessible table containing the same information for those who
> are unable to use Excel, don't have the application or are using
> a technology that does not support Excel documentation.
>
> I don't like to segregate users in this fashion, but if that is
> the only way to include everyone and allow access to the
> information, would this be an acceptable method of offering that
> content?

I don't generally like segregating users either. However it's worth noting
that there are advantages and disadvantages to tables vs. Excel apart from
accessibility issues. The fact that a given individual might want to see
tables sometimes (which are less of a UI shift when you are mainly dealing
with web stuff) and Excel other times (to do Excel specific stuff). On this
basis alone it could well be worth allowing both (or even more) formats.

 The reason that I ask is that I have a site with lots of
> Excel spreadsheets and I was hoping that they wouldn't require
> recoding into tables as they are all different! Still, rather
> more work making it accessible than not bothering at all.

Open the spreadsheet on the server and generate the table from that on the
fly.

Received on Monday, 11 March 2002 11:51:27 UTC