Accessibility is an essential part of creating content that works for everyone. With many standards and considerations to keep in mind, getting started can feel overwhelming. Our Center of Excellence for Learning Resources and Communication shares practical tips to help make content more inclusive across formats and platforms. This post focuses on digital document accessibility and offers five tips for designers who are just getting started.
Accessible content expands your reach and makes it easier for people of all abilities to engage with your message.
Understand the purpose
Making a document accessible is the right thing to do. It removes barriers for those with disabilities while also making your content more accessible for all users. For example, did you know that adding metadata to your file is not only an accessibility requirement but also assists with search engine optimization (SEO)? Metadata is a key part of what search engines rely on to display relevant search results to users. Your document is more likely to get found online because you added metadata.
Learn the language
Key terms to get started in digital document accessibility include Section 508, ADA, WCAG, PDF/UA, testing, remediation, tags, tag tree, alt text, reading order, artifacts, and color contrast. Familiarize yourself with these terms so you can better understand the accessibility test results. You must first understand what the test results are saying before you can start to learn how to resolve the errors.
Explore built-in accessibility features
Unfortunately, there are no built-in accessibility checkers in Adobe’s InDesign or Illustrator. But there are checkers in Microsoft’s Word and PowerPoint. Use these checkers as a first step to see what changes you can make in your source file before you export to a PDF.
Practice testing your exported PDF
Adobe Acrobat’s accessibility checker is more advanced than Microsoft’s checkers in Word and PowerPoint. Run it on your PDF to see what errors and warnings you get. Are there fixes you can make in your source file?
Run the PDF through a more advanced checker
Once your PDF passes Acrobat’s accessibility checker, you’re ready for advanced checkers such as CommonLook or Pac3. Run an accessibility test based on which standards you need to achieve and see what you get. You will probably get hundreds if not thousands of results depending on the size of your PDF. Don’t panic! This is very common. Filter by the fails and the user verifications to see what might need to be remediated (or fixed) in your PDF. Again, are there fixes you can make in your source file?
Keep Going on Your Accessibility Journey
Ready for next steps? Start by learning the language with our “Digital Accessibility: Keywords to Know” resource.
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