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Re: Excel and Jaws

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From: Wee, Kim (MNIT)
Date: Jun 2, 2017 9:22AM

In order to have JAWS read the row and column headers in Excel, you need to assign the TitleRegion. You can do so by doing the following:

First, we need to know three things about our table:
1) Is this the first (or only) table on this worksheet? (table#)
2) What are the addresses of the top left and bottom right cells in the table? (upperleft, lowerright)
3) Is this worksheet the first (or only) worksheet in this workbook? (worksheet#)

Example: TitleRegion#.upperleft.lowerright.worksheet#

Next, do the following:
1) Put your cursor in the top-left cell in the table. Don't count the table titles, but you do count all row and column headers as part of the table
2) Go to the Formulas tab in the Ribbon, and choose Name Manager in the Defined Names group. Choose New in the top left corner. A new dialog box opens
3) Type TitleRegion then add the (table#), then a period.
4) Next add the range of cells in your table from top left to bottom right, like this - (upperleft) 'period- (lowerright) 'period-
5) Then the worksheet number (worksheet#). Your Title code should look like this: TitleRegion1.a2.g45.1
6) Select Ok and Close

Kim Wee
Webmaster and Accessibility Coordinator| Operations Team
Minnesota IT Services | Partnering with Education
1500 Highway 36
Roseville, MN, 55113
O: 651-582-8548
Information Technology for Minnesota Government|mn.gov/mnit




-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Alan Zaitchik
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2017 10:12 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Excel and Jaws

I'm working on some excel spreadsheets that are basically just tables. They have column headings in the top row. Jaws reads cells announcing their cell ids like A10 or B5-- but I can't seem to get it to repeat the column headings the way it would for an html or PDF table. Is it incapable of doing so, or have I simply missed something in excel or in jaws? And is this reason enough to convert to PDF as our accessible version? Note: the intended use is READ ONLY for these files.
Thanks,
A