Considerations to Improve Report Accessibility

For example, people with a visual impairment may use screen reading technology to access the information in a report.

The following are some design considerations for creating accessible reports:

• Avoid using visual cues, such as bold text or color, to convey important information.
• Avoid using pictures and OLE Objects in PDF documents, as these items are tagged as artifacts and ignored by the screen reader.
• Avoid using conditional formatting to convey important information.
• When selecting color palettes for report objects, choose patterns or shades of gray.
• Ensure that there is a table corresponding to chart types that are rendered as images because the screen reader ignores this information.
• Ensure that the report has a title.
• Gain an understanding for screen reading technology.
• Avoid spelling and grammatical errors, as they cause the screen reading software to misinterpret the information.
• Avoid using features like calendar boxes and up and down selections on time controls. Instead use prompts such as check boxes, radio buttons, combo boxes, and multi-select boxes.
• Ensure that the target application is accessible when using embedded Web applications or drill-through paths.
• Avoid using large, complex list or crosstab reports.

  Displaying the information in multiple simple lists or crosstab reports is more manageable for assistive technology users.

• Add alternate text to images, charts, and other visual objects so that screen readers can provide context for them.
• When using tables, add summary text to provide context for the table content. If the top cells in a table behave as headers, designate these cells as headers so that screen readers can identify the relationships.