Did you know that a few simple steps when creating documents could save your government agency time and money when it comes to making documents accessible?
Our Center of Excellence for Learning Resources and Communication (LRC) regularly receives completed digital documents that clients think are accessible, but with a quick look under the hood, we can see they are not. Sometimes tags are missing, the same alternative text is used for every image in the document, and/or color contrast ratios on important parts of the document are low, making the content difficult to read. These are high-level accessibility issues, things we spot without even running automated or manual accessibility checks. We’re able to remediate, or fix, these finalized documents after the fact, but it’s time consuming and expensive. Wouldn’t it be so much better if the problems didn’t exist in the first place?
Bolded Words in this Article
- You may come across some new words and phrases when you’re just getting started in accessibility. We’ve added bold formatting in this article to call attention to some of those terms. Check out our accessibility keywords resource for definitions of the terms.
Tips for Accessible Document Design
Enter a key player on your team: your graphic designer. Each of the high-level accessibility issues mentioned above are problems your designer may be inadvertently adding into your documents. Designers don’t have to be accessibility experts to make a huge difference in the accessibility of your agency’s digital content; they just need a basic understanding of what it means to “design with accessibility in mind.” Accessibility remediation can and should still be done by an accessibility expert who knows the ins and outs of PDF/UA, WCAG, and Section 508 compliance.
Design with strong color contrast
Designs should at minimum meet the contrast ratios as defined by WCAG. There are numerous tools available to help designers achieve the ratios, such as the Color Contrast Analyser (CCA) or Adobe Color’s accessibility tools. The image to the left shows the failure results of testing the color contrast ratios for yellow and white.
Add alt text
Alternative text (or alt text) should be added to images that are necessary for understanding the content. It’s best if the alt text is added in the source file so it doesn’t need to be rewritten each time the PDF is updated. The image to the left shows the alt text panel in Adobe Acrobat, where designers can easily review the alt text that has been added to the document’s images.
Add a functional Table of Contents
If the document is a long document, it needs a Table of Contents (TOC). Our rule of thumb is nine or more pages gets a TOC. Some of InDesign’s TOC panel options are shown in the image to the left. Properly using the TOC features in the software not only makes it easier on your designers and the authors (any edits made to the headlines in your document will then also be reflected in the TOC when it is updated), but it also creates a hyperlinked navigation system for assistive technologies such as screen readers. As a bonus, anyone can also click on the hyperlinks to jump to their desired location. We all benefit when accessibility is incorporated.
Properly use styles
Customize the styles within source files (Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign) and then use them! Styles are the foundational element needed for creating tags in documents. If designers manually format text, they’re leaving it to chance on how the software will tag the document when it’s converted to a PDF. By using styles and defining the tags, the designer retains control over the tag output AND is able to design more efficiently.
Properly export the file
It is baffling how often we find government documents that have no tags. Creating tags is as simple as a designer checking a box on the export settings. The image to the left shows a document that was exported to include tags. There will still need to be cleanup of the tags once they’re created, but having the software make the tags with one click is an efficient way to get started.
Add metadata
Include metadata such as document title, author, and keywords in the source file. This metadata helps readers find your content, regardless of whether they’re using assistive technology or simply looking for a document online (another way we all benefit from accessibility!). Designers should add this metadata to their source document so it doesn’t need to be re-added into the PDF later if there are additional edits.
Artifact visual fluff
If a visual element is not needed to understand the content of the document, hide it. This allows those using screen readers to read more efficiently without announcing each decorative element your designer chose to add solely for aesthetics. The image to the right shows the Object Style panel in InDesign, which is one option for hiding decorative elements in a design source file.
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