Grackle Sheets

Grackle Sheets is an automatic accessibility checker for Google Sheets. It identifies barriers and provides guidance to improve document accessibility. For ease of use, Grackle Sheets has been installed enterprise-wide in the Google Workspace for managed devices.

Important: Grackle is an integration for specific Google Apps, and as such, all usage should follow the Acceptable Use section of the Google Apps Terms of Use & Privacy.

Accessing Grackle Sheets

To check your Google Sheet, open the document and launch the Grackle Sheets Extension.

  • In the Google Sheets menu, select Extensions > Grackle Sheets > Launch
  • Grackle Sheets opens in the right sidebar and runs a check

Accessibility Check Results

Grackle Sheets gives you information about each check that it runs.

  • Green checkmark = Passed
  • Green checkmark with Exclamation = Passed with Warning
  • Red X = Failed

Failed checks and Warnings are probable accessibility issues or barriers.

Improve Your Sheets

Each section in the sidebar includes several checks. If you get a Warning or Failed check, follow instructions in the Grackle sidebar to take action and fix issues. 

Sheets

This section provides feedback on the sheets in your Sheets file. It checks that:

  • Sheets file has a descriptive title
  • Each sheet within the file has a descriptive name (clear labels rather than Untitled Sheet or Sheet1),
  • Total number of sheets is manageable
  • Individual sheets are not too large
  • Individual sheets are not empty

Tables

This section analyzes tables within your Sheets file. This section checks that:

  • Table headers are used
  • Tables are not too long
  • Total number of tables is manageable
  • Merged cells are flagged
  • Isolated cells are flagged

Charts

All charts, graphs, and other images generated in Google Sheets must have accompanying alt text descriptions. This section checks that:

  • Alt text is included for charts

Contents

This section checks the readability of your Sheets. It checks that:

  • Good contrast is used
  • Font size is large enough to be readable 

Table Structure

In addition to the Accessibility Check, the Grackle sidebar has a tab to review Table Structure.

This tab provides information on the tables contained with each sheet. Clicking on the table will highlight it in the sheet. Use this feature to examine what data is included. If needed, you can reorder data, as well as copy a table to a different sheet, trim a sheet to fit a table, and merge sheets together.

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