Creating accessible documents

The core requirements needed to create an accessible document are the same whether you are creating webpage content, a Microsoft Word document, an Adobe PDF or any other document format.

Note: For the examples used in this manual, the Microsoft Word application will be used. However, most applications have similar functionality. If using another application, check your application's documentation for how-to specifics. Also, see 'Preserving accessibility when saving in other formats' for further information on converting Word documents to PDFs.

Core requirements

Use correct heading hierarchy
Use lists where possible
Add alt text for images
Identify the document's language
Use simple tables and only for table data
Use accessible colours for fonts and graphics
Use meaningful hyperlink text
Avoid important information in footer and header
Preserve accessibility when exporting to PDF format

Use the correct heading hierarchy

Headings should form an outline of a document's content. Heading 1 is used for the main heading, Heading 2 for the first level of sub-headings, Heading 3 for the next level of sub-headings, and so forth (Figure 1).

Use the application's functionality for adding the correct heading size according to your document's structure (Figure 2)

Figure 2. Heading configuration menu bar in MS Word

Use lists where possible

Content that is concise is more easily digestable. If possible, present content in the form of simple lists.

Content that is organized as a list should use the standard unordered (Figure 3) or ordered list (Figure 4) controls in the application software. As long as you are using the application's list format, a user using a screen reader is given helpful information: that they are entering a list and how many items are in the list.

Add alternative text to images

Images that communicate content, descriptive illustrations and images containing text must have alternative text (alt text). This will be communicated to screen reader users.

Figure 5. Accessing the dialogue for adding alt text to images

To access the dialogue to add alt text in MS Word, right click and select Add Alt Text... from the menu (Figure 5).

Figure 6. Alt text dialogue window in MS Word

The alt text dialogue (Figure 6) will appear on the right side of the Word document.

If an image is used to convey information to a user, add relevant and meaningful text describing the informational content of the image in the description field.
If an image is purely decorative, the Mark as decorative checkbox should be marked.

When creating an accessible document, it is always best to use an application's tool to create content. Only include 'images' used for charts and graphs if adequate alt text can be added to fully explain the content. Otherwise, create the necessary graph or chart in the application itself or alternatively provide an additional table displaying the data in a chart or graph, which is likely to be more accessible for the majority of users.

The image of the graph in Figure 7 is not accessible for various reasons: it relies on colours to identify content, there is no label/legend for the graph information along the bottom axis and the colours used do not have sufficient colour contrast to be distringuished.

Enlarged view: Figure 7. Example of an inaccessible graph — Figure 7. Example of an inaccessible graph

Even if created with the application's graph functionality, the colour and label issues above would remain.

Alternatively, Figure 8 depicts the same information as in Figure 7, but is accessible, because it was created with the MS Word chart functionality, is readable by a reader because there are clear descriptive labels for the chart information and the colours are now shades of blue with sufficient colour contrast to be distinguishable by colorblind users.

Enlarged view: Figure 8: Example of an accessible graph — Figure 8: Example of an accessible graph

Figure 9 shows how, alternatively, a table could be used instead of the image of the chart or graph for displaying the same information. See the tables section for creating accessible tables.

Enlarged view: Figure 9. Displaying the chart info as an accessible table — Figure 9. Displaying the chart info as an accessible table

Identify the document's language

Screen reader software is multilingual, but in order to correctly read a document, it must know the language. Most document software provides a means of identifying a document's language and also a way of identifying specific parts of the document if in a different language than the default language.

Depending on your system, the application menu items may differ slightly. Typically, the language setting for the Word document can be set in File > Options > Language.

Figure 10. Defining a specific part as a different language in a Word document

To define the language of a specific paragraph in a document if in another language than the defined language of the document, one can select the specific text and use the Tools > Language menu item.

A dialogue will open to define the language of the selected text (Figure 10). Select the correct language from the dropdown and click OK.

Use simple tables and only for table data

Tables should be used to communicate table data only and never used for visual layout of information.

Tables should have clear descriptive headings for each column and/or row, have only one piece of information per cell, and have a simple table structure. Tables should have no split cells, merged cells or nested tables.

Enlarged view: Figure 11. Configuring a header row in MS Word — Figure 11. Configuring a header row in MS Word

Make sure the Header Row checkbox is selected in the Table Design tab (Figure 11) when creating a table in MS Word and define a short relevant title for each column that describes the content of the cells in that column.

Figure 12. Configuring header row repeat for tables extending longer than a page

For tables, spanning more than one page, be sure to select the 'Repeat as header row at the top of each page' box in the Row tab of the Table properties dialogue (Figure 12).

Always use the Accessibility Checker menu item in Word to check if your content and especially tables are done correctly.

Use accessible colours for fonts and graphics

Important information should never rely on colour for distinguishing and conveying information because colours are not useful for all users (blind or colourblind).

Therefore, it is important that the information be conveyed directly without the use of colour and if you wish to enhance a document with the use of colour for others, then it is important to use colours with sufficient colour contrast ratios to adhere to accessibility requirements.

Use sufficient contrast for text with the background colour. To assist with finding suitable colours, use Word's built in Accessibility Checker functionality.

To check the colour contrast ratios between colours, as well as on a background, external pageWebAIM's Link contrast checker is a good resource.

Another interesting source for choosing multiple colours for graphics to ensure enough contrast between the chosen colours is the external pageVizPalette solution online.

Use meaningful hyperlink text

Links should make sense out of context. Therefore, avoid nondescriptive link text such as link, here, go to link, more, website, document etc. Instead use text that describes the target destination or what will be downloaded.

Avoid important information in document footer and header

Headers and footers are only visible in the print layout view and print preview. Screenreaders do not scan Header or Footer document areas. Therefore, all important information that a document is intended to convey should be in the standard content area of the document.

Preserving accessibility when exporting to PDF format

The first step in creating an accessible PDF is to be sure that the original Word document is accessible. Do not print to PDF. This method does not preserve the document's accessiblity features. For PDF documents to be accessible, they must be a "tagged" PDF, meaning they have an underlying tag structure that includes the features described above. To save the Word document to a PDF format, follow the following steps:

Make sure that the fields for "Author" and "Title" are filled correctly in the document properties before saving the document.
Go to File > 'Save As...' and select PDF from the choices provided in the dropdown.
Be sure the box to export and preserve the document tag structure for accessibility is marked (this field is labeled differently depending on the system used).