Introduction
Writing with accessibility in mind means that you are trying to make sure that your content can be read and understood by as wide an audience as possible.
The information below offers some helpful tips on improving the accessibility of your documents, for both print and reading online.
It focuses on producing accessible documents using Microsoft Word, but the principles involved are universal and can easily be applied when you are using other software.
Before you start
Before you create your document, consider whether it can be added as a web page instead. Web pages are made with code which interacts more easily with assistive technology, and the experience is much more accessible for all users than PDF’s.
Web pages are easier to search for, both within the website and on search engines like Google. They are also easier to keep up to date, with updates taking just seconds, instead of having to go through a checking and exporting process on your document for each change.
Reasons not to use PDF’s
- They do not change size to fit the browser and are not designed for reading on screens, which causes difficulties for navigation and orientation, especially mobile devices. This makes it harder for everyone to read them regardless of their impairments.
- It is harder to track their use – making it harder to report on their effectiveness.
- They can be hard for some users to access – which blocks some users from the information.
- They are less likely to be kept up to date – increasing the risk that the information within them is incorrect or redundant.
- Making a PDF truly compliant to accessibility regulations is difficult even for the experts. This means even with a large amount of effort some users will be unable to use it.
Key Principles
To be truly accessible, it is not enough for a document to look nice. For it to be legally compliant, and be able to be read and understood by everyone regardless of their impairment, your document must work well with assistive technology like screen readers.
It is good practice to write your document as if you are writing for a web page, based on the following main principles:
- use headings in sequential order
- present the information in a logical reading order
- write in short, simple sentences, being concise and to the point
- write in plain language, avoiding jargon and abbreviations
- use an accessible font and a text size of at least 12-point
- use proper list formatting for numbered or bullet lists
- provide a meaningful description of important images
Always check the accessibility of your document using Word’s built-in checker, as well as Adobe if you are exporting to PDF format.
In the following pages we are going to explain how to make sure your document has all of these things, so that it is legally compliant and easy to use for all viewers.