Accessibility - Document design

When developing electronic documents, there are a few items to keep in mind so documents will be accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities. The following are core principles for creating accessible documents: 

• Use heading formats
• Use list formats
• Use meaningful hyperlinks
• Add alternative text for images
• Identify the document’s language
• Use tables wisely
• Preserve accessibility when exporting documents to PDF
• Seek help for complex issues – or when you regard any of the above as a complex issue 

Headings are used to define the structure of a document by using semantic heading levels. Heading levels are content styles that allow screen readers to describe the document or web page structure to persons with visual or cognitive disabilities. Individuals can use the screen reader to scan the content or jump to a particular section of the content using headings without having to read the entire document. Depending on the document type, headings can automatically be used as bookmarks or for a table of contents. Properly used headings break up text for both sighted and non-sighted users and create content with a consistent look and feel.  

Tips for heading levels:  

• Use brief headings related to the text within a section.  
• Always use a heading level designation when labeling a section of information. Do not use bold or enlarged text as a substitute. Screen reader users will not be able to skip to relevant sections or scan the document for important information without those heading levels.  
• Assign only one Heading Level 1. This should be the title of your document or web page. You may see the style-type within the heading styles that indicates Title, but this is used for APA requirements like Reference pages. 
• Do not skip heading levels to achieve a certain font or style. You should assign them in numerical order. You can typically edit each heading level to match a preferred look.  

Lists 

List formats allow content to be grouped into bulleted or ordered lists which are read as related text by a screen reader. List formats can quickly and easily be selected within word processing applications and when entering content for websites. They are much easier to create than using a sequence of numbers or symbols, and they group related information for better understanding. Without this special formatting, those with visual or cognitive disabilities may not quite understand the relationship among the items or the ideas. List formats provide a standard format within the document, the web page or different applications and are helpful for everyone. 

Tips for lists:  

• Use a numbered list for information when the order is important, to show that there's a priority, or for steps in a process.  
• Use a bulleted list when order is not important, but the listed items are related and grouped together for a purpose.  
• Indent subtopics within the list to help the reader process information more easily.  
• Choose simple bullet styles to minimize distraction. 

Hyperlinks 

Linked text, or hyperlinks, presented in an electronic document should convey clear and accurate information about the link’s destination. Most authoring tools allow the creator to assign a hyperlink to selected text. When URLs themselves are used as hyperlinks, screen readers read aloud every letter, dash, slash, and dot of the URLs, making it very distracting to their users.  

Tips for hyperlinks:  

• A hyperlink is much easier to see when its style is different from surrounding text.  Hyperlinks should have adequate contrast, allowing text to be distinguishable from the background color and from the color of the surrounding text. Underlining a hyperlink can be helpful for everyone.  
• Avoid using “click here”, “read more” or the full URL as these are empty links or a string of long-text read for screen readers.  For documents that will be circulated as print material, use a URL shortening service to create a customized and meaningful link name. 
• If you use an image to create a hyperlink, make sure the destination is included in the image’s alt text tag.  

Alternative text (Alt text) 

Alternative text, also known as “alt text,” allows those who are blind or have poor vision as well as those with cognitive disabilities to understand what images represent. These images can be photographs, tables, and graphs, to name a few. When using a screen reader, alternative text associated with images is read aloud.  When you don’t provide alt text, the screen reader may only read the word “image” or it may read the file name, which doesn’t provide meaning or an equitable experience for users   

Alt text can be a benefit for everyone, especially when there is poor connectivity. When web page images don’t load, the alt text is available where the image would be. 

Tips for alternative text:  

• Precise writing of alt text is important. Think about a concise phrase which could replace the image, keeping in context with the message. For example, this picture of a dog may mean something different to the dog’s owner than to a veterinary student learning about healthy dogs.  
• Some images may be decorative and not convey any valuable meaning. In those cases, consult your application to see how to deal with decorative images. For websites, proper code is needed. 

Language 

To ensure that screen readers will read a document using the appropriate language profile, the language of the document must be identified.   

Tips for language within a document:  

• Most document authoring tools provide a means of identifying the document language as well as the language of specific parts.  Leading screen reader software is multilingual, and can read content in English, Spanish, French, and a wide variety of other languages.  
• You should also identify the language of any content written in a language other than the document’s default language. With this information, supporting screen readers will switch between language profiles on the fly. 

Tables 

Tables in documents are useful for communicating relationships between data, especially when those relationships can be best expressed in a matrix of rows and columns.   

Tips for tables:  

• If data is best presented in a table, try to keep the table simple. If the table is complex, consider whether you could divide it into multiple smaller tables with a heading above each. 
• A key to making data tables accessible to screen reader users is to clearly identify column and row headers. 
• Tables should not be used to control layout. Authoring tools have other means of doing this, including organizing content into columns. 

Preserve accessibility   

To make an Adobe PDF document accessible, it must be a “tagged” PDF, with an underlying tagged structure that includes the features previously described.  

Tips for preserving accessibility:  

• If using Microsoft Word, exporting the Word document to PDF format, select “will create/maintain accessibility features already added to the document.”  
• Other authoring tools have additional means of doing this, and some may include organizing content into columns.