Accessibility checklist

The tables below indicate your accessibility responsibilities when publishing statistics in spreadsheets. It is based on the Analysis Function checklist of the basics and heavily inspired by the aftables documentation.

If you need further advice on applying accessibility and presentation standards, you can contact your department's GSS Presentation Champion. Presentation Champions work across government to promote best practice in the presentation of statistics and can direct you to appropriate guidance and support.

NOTE

The tables show which checklist items are automatically met by gptables. This applies to workbooks created using the default gptheme and may not apply if custom themes or additional formatting are used.

Table

Description	Essential?	Status	Explanation
Mark up tables	Essential	Implemented	Tables in a GPWorkbook, including notes table and table of contents are marked as tables by default.
Give tables meaningful names	Desirable	Partially implemented	Pass a meaningful name to the GPTable.table_name property.
Remove merged cells, split cells and nested tables	Essential	Implemented	Merged cell, split cells and nested tables are not supported by gptables.
Remove blank rows and columns within tables	Essential	Partially implemented	Blank rows or columns in a column will raise an error. User should remove them and any apply any desired additional formatting.
All tables should have one tagged header row	Essential	Implemented	The column names in a GPTable.table will be tagged as the header.
Wrap text within cells	Essential	Partially implemented	Using auto_width = True (default value) will enable all text to be visible. This feature is experimental and some customisation may be desired.
Avoid adding filters and freeze panes	Desirable	Implemented	Filters and freeze panes are not supported by gptables.
Only leave cells with no data empty in certain circumstances	Essential	Partially implemented	If cells are null or whitespace, users are prompted to explain why in the GPTables.instructions property. If there is more than one reason for missingness, use the appropriate shorthand and explain in the GPTables.legend property.
Avoid hiding rows or columns	Desirable	Implemented	Hiding rows or columns is not supported by gptables.

Footnotes

Description	Essential?	Status	Explanation
Do not use symbols or superscript to signpost to notes	Essential	Implemented	Notes marked with $$note_ref$$ will be formatted as [note n], where n is the order the note appears in the workbook.
Use the word ‘note’ when referring to footnotes	Desirable	Implemented	As mentioned above, notes are formatted as [note n].
Avoid putting note markers in specific cells	Desirable	Partially implemented	The $$note_ref$$ functionality is not supported within data cells in tables. It is the user’s responsibility to not add notes manually to data cells.
Put note text in a notes table on a notes worksheet	Desirable	Implemented	If users provide a notes_table when producing or writing a workbook, a notes worksheet will be created.

Formatting

Description	Essential?	Status	Explanation
All written content needs to meet the accessibility guidelines	Essential	Not implemented	It is the package user’s responsibility to make sure that text follows the Analysis Function guidance on making written content accessible.
Links must be accessible	Essential	Partially implemented	Users should provide descriptive hyperlink text using the (display text)[link] syntax.
Format text to make it accessible	Desirable	Implemented	The default theme meets the accessibility guidance on formatting text.
All worksheets should have descriptive titles which are properly tagged and formatted	Essential	Partially implemented	Provide descriptive titles to the GPTable.title and subtitles properties. Note: heading tagging in Excel does not meet the standard required of webpage heading tagging.
Avoid using symbols in general	Desirable	Partially implemented	An error will be raised if table cells only contain symbols. It is the user’s responsibility to make sure symbol use within text is appropriate.
Do not use headers and footers, floating text boxes or floating toolbars	Essential	Implemented	These components are not supported by gptables.
Do not use visual devices to divide data regions	Desirable	Implemented	Using gptables without additional formatting does not use such visual devices.
Do not use a background fill	Desirable	Implemented	The gptables default theme does not apply a background fill.
Do not use colour as the only way to convey a message	Essential	Implemented	The default theme without additional formatting does not apply colour.
When using colour for emphasis check the contrast	Essential	Not implemented	If using colour via additional formatting or a custom theme, it is the user’s responsibility to check the colour contrast.
Avoid images in spreadsheets	Desirable	Implemented	Adding images is not supported by gptables.
Remove macros	Desirable	Implemented	Macros are not supported by gptables.

Structure

Description	Essential?	Status	Explanation
Give worksheets unique names or numbers	Essential	Implemented	Worksheet names come from the sheets = {"label": gptable} property. If names are duplicated, the final label: gptable pair will be used.
Remove blank worksheets	Essential	Implemented	Blank worksheets are not supported by gptables.
Use cells in column A wisely	Essential	Implemented	GPTable attributes are written to column A. Title and subtitles are first. The order of the remaining descriptive attributes can be customised by creating a custom theme with a different description_order.
Position tables against the left-hand edges of each sheet	Essential	Implemented	gptables writes tables starting in column A.
Avoid putting content below a table	Desirable	Implemented	Writing content below a table is not supported in gptables>=1.0.0.
Avoid worksheets with multiple tables	Desirable	Implemented	Writing multiple tables per sheet is not supported in gptables.

Before publishing

Description	Essential?	Status	Explanation
Run a spelling and grammar check	Essential	Not implemented	gptables does not check spelling and grammar, this is the user’s responsibility.
Use the accessibility checker	Desirable	Not implemented	gptables does not have a built-in accessibility checker. Whilst all efforts have been taken to make outputs accessible, the final responsibility sits with the user.
Add document information	Essential	Not implemented	gptables does not add title or language information to the document, this responsibility sits with the user. Note: the document properties available depend on the user’s operating system and may not meet the standard required for webpages.
Ensure the cursor is in cell A1 of the first worksheet when doing your final save	Essential	Implemented	Workbooks written using gptables will have the cursor in the first cell. Note: if the workbook is subsequently opened and saved, it is the user’s responsibility to check that the cursor has not been moved.