Overall Best Practices

Document accessibility refers to the practice of ensuring that a document is digitally accessible to all individuals, including those with disabilities. There are several document accessibility best practices to consider for all documents, no matter which platform is used to create the document. Please note that the instructions for document remediation in this module will show options for completion in Microsoft Word with a mouse and a keyboard. This is provided in an effort to ensure that there are accessible options for all people. These best practices include:

Utilizing Built-In Automated Accessibility Checkers

Creating Headings to Organize Content

Creating Lists

Renaming Hyperlinks to Give Context

Adding Alternative Text to All Images

Alternative text (alt text) is a text-based substitute for non-text content, which typically refers to images. Alt text is typically utilized by screen readers, as they will read the alt text aloud to users.

Alt text must be provided for all images and should convey the purpose or the "why" of the image instead of providing a complete visual description. Alt text should be as concise as possible, preferably less than two sentences, and should not include word like "image of" or "graphic of". If an image is purely used for decorative purposes, the image can be marked as decorative and would not need alt text.

Alternative Text Instructions .docx

Utilizing Built-In Spacing Options

Following Guidelines to Create Accessible Tables

There are multiple components to creating an accessible table. One of the most important aspects is that tables should only be utilized when it makes sense to convey data in a table format. Tables should not be used to space content or create visual layouts.

In order for a table to be considered accessible, the following criteria must be met:

Heading row is identified
No merged cells
No split cells
No empty cells

When available, the option to repeat the heading row in a table should be selected so that if a table spans multiple pages, the heading row is repeated.

Tables Instructions .docx

Ensuring Appropriate Color Contrast

Color contrast refers to the contrast in color between content in the foreground and background of a screen. The color of content in the foreground should have enough contrast from the color of background content that it can be easily identified and understood. According to WCAG 2.0 AA, color contrast for normal text (under 18 pt font) should be at least 4.5:1 and color contrast for large test (18+ pt font) should be at least 3:1.

If you are unsure of the color contrast of your content, consider utilizing a color contrast checker to understand if the contrast meets WCAG 2.0 AA standards. If you do not have access to a color contract checker, try viewing or printing your content in either black and white or grayscale. If the foreground content cannot easily be distinguished from the background content, your color contrast is likely not meeting the standards.

Ensuring Color Alone Does Not Represent Content/Meaning

Color alone should never be used to assign meaning to content.

A good example of this is a line graph. Typically, each line in the graph is a different color and can be matched with a corresponding key to understand what variables are being presented. If a user is unable to discern color, the graph would be completely inaccessible to them. To remedy this, you could use different shapes in conjunction with the color to provide an alternative means of presenting the information (e.g. red dotted line, blue dash line, etc.).

As a more practical example, this means that we should not solely turn text red to indicate a warning or assign meaning to the content. To remedy this, you could add an asterisk or write the word "warning" in front of the text.

Resources