Accessible Features in C# .NET RDL Report Apps

In an era defined by information and technology, accessibility is not just a nice-to-have feature. It’s essential. Whether you are building internal dashboards or external, customer-facing reports, your content should be accessible to all users. This includes people with visual, cognitive, or physical impairments. At MESCIUS, we believe in helping developers build inclusive applications. ActiveReports.NET gives you the tools to create reports that are both powerful and accessible.

In this post, we will cover why accessibility is important, what accessibility features ActiveReports.NET provides, and best practices for designing inclusive reports.

• Why Accessibility Matters in Reporting
• Best Practices for Creating Accessible Reports
• Accessibility Features in ActiveReports.NET
• Conclusion

Ready to build accessible and professional reports? Download ActiveReports.NET Today!

Why Accessibility Matters in Reporting

Accessibility ensures that all users can perceive, navigate, and understand the content of your reports. This includes people who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers, keyboard navigation, and high-contrast interfaces.

Why it matters:

• Legal compliance: Many countries have regulations that require digital accessibility. These may include the ADA, and Section 508 in the United States, EN 301 549 in the European Union, and WCAG internationally.
• Wider reach: Reports designed with accessibility in mind can be used by a larger audience, including users with disabilities or those accessing content on mobile devices or in low-vision conditions.
• Improved design: Accessible reports are often clearer and more structured, which benefits all users.

Best Practices for Creating Accessible Reports

Accessibility features are most effective when paired with thoughtful report design. Here are several best practices you can follow to improve accessibility:

1. Ensure Logical Tab Order

Tab order is typically determined in one of two ways. Here's how they work and how you can manage them:

How Tab Order is Determined

1. Top-to-Bottom, Left-to-Right:
• The tab order follows the position of controls:
• Controls higher up on the page come first
• If multiple controls are horizontally aligned, the one further to the left comes first
2. Rendering Sequence:
• The tab order is based on how the report engine renders controls. This rendering sequence follows the order in which controls are defined in the report's layout or in the designer’s XML (RDLX or RPX files)

How to Control Tab Order

While most report designers may not have an explicit “TabIndex” property, you can influence the tab order using these practices:

• Layout Strategically: Arrange controls top-to-bottom and left-to-right based on your desired tab sequence
• Avoid Overlapping Controls: Overlapping or out-of-order controls can confuse screen readers and keyboard navigation
• Group Logical Elements: Use containers like List, Table, or SubReport to encapsulate related items. This helps maintain a predictable tab flow
• Preview with Screen Reader Tools: Use tools like NVDA or JAWS to test real tab order and screen reader behavior, especially with tagged PDF or HTML exports
• Tagged PDF Export: If you're exporting to PDF, enabling Tagged PDF helps preserve semantic reading and navigation order, including tab stops. More information on this is at #4

2. Add Alternative Text to Images and Visualizations

Every image and visualization control in your report should include alternative text (alt text). Screen readers use alt text to describe the content or purpose of an image to users who cannot see it.

What Makes Good Alt Text?

Good alt text is:

• Concise: It should be brief but descriptive, typically under 125 characters
• Relevant: It should convey the essential meaning or function of the image in the context of the report
• Specific: Avoid vague descriptions like "image" or "chart." Focus on what the image actually represents
• Avoids Redundancy: Don’t repeat nearby captions or information already provided in the text

Examples

3. Maintain High Contrast and Never Rely on Color Alone

Text should be easy to read against the background. Make sure there is enough contrast between colors. Do not rely on color alone to convey meaning, as the color may be unclear to users with color vision deficiencies, and will not be represented at all by screen readers. Add icons or text labels for clarity.

The various accessibility standards typically include requirements for specific minimum contrast ratios between foreground and background colors. For example, WCAG 2.0 AA requires a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text (18pt+ or 14pt+ bold).

Several free online tools exist to help check if a given color combination meets accessibility standards, such as this WCAG Contrast Checker by WebAIM.

4. Enable Tagged PDF Export

A tagged PDF includes an internal structure tree that describes the logical reading order and semantic roles of the content, such as headings, paragraphs, tables, lists, and figures. This is essential for screen readers and other assistive technologies to correctly interpret and navigate the content.

Unlike untagged PDFs, which are essentially just visual snapshots, tagged PDFs behave more like HTML with meaningful document structure.

Here’s a conceptual breakdown of how the structure tree in a tagged PDF might be organized:

Document
├── <Sect> (Section)
│   ├── <H1> Sales Performance Report - Q1 2025
│   ├── <P> This report provides a summary of revenue trends...
│   ├── <Figure> (Bar chart)
│   │   └── /Alt (Bar chart comparing Q1 2025 to Q1 2024 revenue)
│   ├── <Table>
│   │   ├── <TR>
│   │   │   ├── <TH> Month
│   │   │   ├── <TH> Revenue (2024)
│   │   │   └── <TH> Revenue (2025)
│   │   ├── <TR>
│   │   │   ├── <TD> January
│   │   │   ├── <TD> $80,000
│   │   │   └── <TD> $92,000
│   │   └── ... (additional rows)
│   └── <H2> Regional Summary
│       └── <P> The Northeast region led growth, increasing by 20%...

Each tag serves a purpose:

• <H1>, <H2>: Heading levels help assistive tools navigate sections
• <P>: Paragraphs for body text
• <Figure>: Images or charts, usually with alt text for screen readers
• <Table>, <TR>, <TH>, <TD>: Fully structured tables with rows and headers

Why It Matters

Without tags:

• A screen reader reads everything in raw, visual order (often out of context)
• Images are skipped or read as "graphic"
• Tables are just boxes of text with no row/column relationship

With tags:

• Users can jump by heading, table, or section
• Content is read in a logical flow
• Visual elements have meaningful descriptions

5. Use Descriptive Labels

Similar to alt text, avoid using generic labels like "Data1" or "Value". Use descriptive text that tells the user what the data represents. This is especially important for charts and input fields.

Accessibility Features in ActiveReports.NET

ActiveReports.NET includes several built-in features that help you create reports that are easier to use for everyone.

1. Tagged PDF Export

ActiveReports supports exporting tagged PDFs. This format includes structural tags such as headings, paragraphs, and tables, which make it easier for screen readers to interpret the document. The PDF versions that support tagged PDFs conforming with the PDF/UA standard are PDF/A-1a, PDF/A-2a, PDF/A-2u, PDF/A-3a, PDF/A-3u, and PDF/UA-1. When exporting to one of these compatible formats, ActiveReports will automatically apply semantic tags to all elements of the document.

2. Accessible HTML Output

When previewing in the web viewer and exporting reports to HTML, ActiveReports uses standard HTML elements that follow semantic best practices. This improves compatibility with browser-based assistive tools.

3. Keyboard-Friendly Web Report Viewers

The web report viewers in ActiveReports support keyboard navigation. Users can page through reports, zoom in or out, and search using only the keyboard.

4. Alternative Text

Using the Accessible Description property, alt text can be added to images and other visual report controls such as Bullet, Barcode, Chart, Image, Line, Map, Shape, Sparkline, FormattedText, and any custom report items.

Conclusion

Accessibility is a responsibility that all developers share. With ActiveReports.NET, you have the tools to ensure your reports are accessible to everyone. By enabling features like tagged PDFs, using semantic HTML output, and following accessibility best practices, you can build reports that meet modern standards and serve all users equally.

Ready to build accessible and professional reports? Download ActiveReports.NET Today!