Digital Accessibility Program Manager Al Nemic with the Center for User Experience (CUE) joined us to discuss data and digital accessibility, including better understanding the requirements, best practices, and resources to improve user experience.
Background
The Department of Justice (DOJ) passed a new digital accessibility rule for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), effective April 24, 2026, requiring public universities’ digital tools and materials to be accessible. The list of what must be accessible includes:
- Websites and web forms.
- Software, apps, and mobile apps.
- Multimedia.
- Social media.
- Course content.
- Library content.
- Employee work tools, databases, systems.
- Conventional electronic documents.
At UW–Madison, the focus is on the 3Rs—remove, remediate, and right first. Archive materials that are not needed (remove). Prioritize fixing the most accessed items (remediate). Last, adjust material creation processes so that all new materials are more accessible (right first) right away.
Improve digital accessibility for data
There are several fundamental best practices to improve the digital accessibility of data.
For spreadsheets and tables, avoiding merged cells and multi-level headers is critical. In addition:
- Use the built-in accessibility checkers in Microsoft products. For Google products, add the Grackle Workspace extension.
- Do not use blank cells or rows for visual spacing.
- Define header cells properly (e.g., set header rows/columns in Excel tables) so assistive technologies can correctly associate data.
- Consider converting data ranges into structured tables (Insert → Table) to improve navigation and header recognition.
Often, data sets and visualizations are significantly more complex than a common table. In those situations, here are some considerations:
- For visualizations, present the data in a table alongside the visual representation, if possible.
- If a data set for a visualization is large, consider including a representative sample in the table rather than the entire dataset.
- Make raw data available for download.
CUE is available to help you address the unique challenges with complex datasets. Complete a support request or schedule office hours.
Key resources
Presentation slide deck (with even more resources and details)
CUE’s Make It Accessible guides