5 steps to create Accessible Documents

Introduction

An accessible document is a document that can be understood and better narrated by screen readers and other assistive technologies. Per National Institutes of Health, at any given time, 15% of the population is disabled — partially or otherwise. If a document is authored and created with accessibility in mind, it will help everyone read these documents.

This article describes 5 ways to make a document accessible with an example. We will create a simple document in Microsoft Word with accessibility in mind, but the principles will apply to other document editors such as Open Office equally so.

5 step check list

To create an accessible document, the following 5 features of MS Word (or equivalent document editor) must be explicitly used.

• For Headings and Sub-Headings, used the heading styles provided by the document editor. Screen Readers treat headings separately and allow users to switch between headings. Kindly do not use a higher bold font for headings as screen readers will not be able to switch between such headings. The Heading Styles provided by Word are shown below.

• For list items, use the built in list option. Screen readers understand and can announce to the user that a list is being read. Otherwise the screen reader will read the items without the user realizing that this is a list and the comprehension will not be as clear.

• Use Alt Text For Images. The screen reader cannot read an image but it can announce the content of Alt Text so that the user can understand what this image is about , which results in better comprehension. Otherwise the user will just hear that there is an image — which is not as helpful as knowing what this image is about. In MS Word, right click on a picture, select “Format Picture…”. In the Format Picture dialog box, enter the values of Title and Description.

• Specify the language of the document. This is true of documents which are to be shared across different locales, eg same document being shared across different countries with different languages. Screen readers may otherwise assume the local language which may be different than the language of the document. In MS Word, this is under Tools, Language.

• Finally, document editors offer feature(s) to check the document for accessibility. Once the document is ready, run this feature as it will check the document and suggest changes specific to accessibility if necessary. In Word this is under “Tools, Check Accessibility”.

Conclusion

When creating documents, leveraging the following 5 features of document editor, will lead to content that will be much better understood by assistive technologies including screen readers.

1. Use built In Headings and Sub headings
2. Use built in Lists (for list items)
3. Specify Alt Text for Images
4. Specify that language of the document
5. Use built in Accessibility checkers