Document Accessibility

Introduction to Document Accessibility

Welcome to the world of document accessibility, where every individual, regardless of their abilities, can access and understand information with ease. At CrawfordTech, we understand the importance of creating accessible documents that meet the needs of all users, including those with disabilities. By embracing document accessibility, you not only ensure compliance with accessibility regulations but also foster a sense of belonging and empowerment within your organization and the communities you serve.

Documents are considered accessible when they can be accessed by everyone regardless of tools or ability. Ensuring accessibility is easy with the right tools software and education.

An accessible document offers a multitude of benefits, such as:

• Improved readability and comprehension for all users
• Enhanced user experience and satisfaction
• Expanded reach and inclusivity
• Compliance with legal requirements and industry standards

However, keeping up with ever-changing rules and regulations can be a daunting task, and managing large amounts of data and various data types into accessible and compliant formats can be time-consuming and costly if not done right. Non-compliance with worldwide regulations governing document accessibility can lead to costly consequences, making it imperative for businesses and organizations to find the right solution that can properly and efficiently manage the many required alternate formats.

Challenges Faced Due to Document Inaccessibility

To understand the importance of ensuring accessibility in documents, one must understand the challenges that can arise due to document inaccessibility:

1. Ambiguous Language: Many inaccessible documents are written in vague and ambiguous language that can be difficult to understand..
2. Inadequate Formatting: Inaccessible documents often lack appropriate formatting and structure, such as proper headings, meaningful paragraphs, and a table of contents. This makes it challenging to navigate the document while using a screen reader or other assistive technology.
3. Lack of Alternate Formats: Many documents are only available in PDF format, Which can make it impossible for individuals to access the content without specialized software or assistance from someone else. Some people can’t access an electronic document, therefore alternate formats may be required for access to information.
4. Lack of Awareness: Images within documents can present an accessibility challenge because they may not include alternative text describing their contents. This means that users of assistive technology might not be aware of that content!
5. Readability Issues: Documents with small fonts and low-contrast backgrounds might decrease readability for partially sighted users.

Working on document accessibility from the start can help eliminate these challenges. 

Key Concepts for Creating Accessible Documents

To create truly accessible documents, it’s essential to understand the key elements that contribute to their usability. Some of the fundamental concepts include:

• Proper headings: Use a hierarchical structure of headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to organize your content and make it easier for users to navigate.
• Alternative text: Provide descriptive alternate text (alt text) for images, charts, and graphs to ensure that blind or partially sighted users can understand the content.
• Color contrast: Ensure sufficient color contrast between text and background to improve readability.
• Metadata: Include relevant metadata, such as document title and author to make it available to the end user, and language, to ensure correct pronunciation by the assistive technology.

Crawford Technologies’ AccessibilityNow platform simplifies the process of implementing these accessibility best practices across various document formats, including Microsoft Word, PDF, braille, large print and more. With AccessibilityNow, you can ensure compliance with accessibility guidelines while streamlining your document creation and remediation processes.

Recommendations for Ensuring Document Accessibility

The basic steps for creating accessible documents are similar regardless of whether the document is in HTML, Microsoft Word, PDF, or other formats. These steps are:

• Ensure non-text content such as images and logos have alternative text or text descriptions to provide context.
• Include tagging structure that is accessible by assistive technology.
• Properly label form fields, so it’s accessible to keyboard-only users.
• Ensure all links and interactive content are labeled and work when activated.
• Format tables properly and designate table headers.
• A text size of 12 points or higher will benefit most users.
• Numbers from one to nine are easier to read if written as words, while numbers from 10 upwards should be presented as numerals.

Addressing Common Document Accessibility Challenges

Organizations often face several common challenges when dealing with document accessibility, such as:

• Concerns about customer-facing documents not being compliant: CrawfordTech’s solutions ensure that all your customer-facing documents are fully compliant with accessibility regulations, protecting your organization from potential legal risks.
• Difficulty managing the delivery of various alternate formats: AccessibilityNow supports a wide range of document formats, making it easy to manage and deliver accessible versions of all your documents.
• Spending too much time and money on managing document accessibility communications without achieving full compliance: CrawfordTech’s automated solutions streamline the accessibility process, saving you time and money while ensuring full compliance.
• Considering adding additional resources to resolve accessibility issues: With AccessibilityNow, you can efficiently manage your document accessibility needs without the need for additional resources, allowing your team to focus on core business activities.

CrawfordTech’s comprehensive solutions address these challenges head-on, providing organizations with the tools and expertise needed to succeed in their document accessibility initiatives.

Ensuring Compliance with Accessibility Regulations

Compliance with accessibility regulations is a critical aspect of document accessibility. In addition to the regulations mentioned, it’s important to note that WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 are the key standards to follow for PDF accessibility. CrawfordTech’s solutions are designed to help you meet the requirements of various accessibility guidelines and standards, such as:

• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act: Our solutions ensure that your electronic and information technology is accessible to people with disabilities, as required by Section 508.
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Our services support your compliance with the ADA, ensuring that your documents are accessible to individuals with disabilities.
• EN-301: We help you achieve conformance to EN-301, ensuring accessibility for your ICT products.
• AODA: By partnering with Crawford Technologies, you can have peace of mind knowing that your documents are compliant with the latest accessibility regulations and best practices.
• CMS Final Rule: This rule mandates materials and content sent to members adhere to health equity goals, requiring translation into foreign languages based on enrollee preferences and accessible formats like large print, braille, and audio files within 24 – 72 hours. (Learn More)

The Importance of Accessibility Testing

​Accessibility testing is a crucial step in ensuring that your documents meet the required standards and are usable by people with disabilities. Several tools are available to help check the accessibility of your documents, including:

• AccessibilityNow Validator: A scanning program that identifies accessibility defects in your documents.
• WAVE: A web accessibility evaluation tool that helps identify accessibility issues in web content.
• AChecker: A web-based tool that checks single HTML pages for conformance with accessibility standards.
• Lighthouse: An open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages, including accessibility.

By using these tools and conducting thorough accessibility testing, you can identify and address any issues before your documents are published, ensuring a fully accessible and inclusive user experience.

How to Ensure Accessibility for Different Document Types

There are different recommendations for ensuring accessibility for different document types:

Microsoft Office

Ensuring accessibility in a Microsoft Office document includes adequately labeling images, charts, and other non-text content. Documents should be formatted to maximize legibility and readability, including headings. Documents should also be designed to be navigable using keyboard shortcuts. Accessibility testing for these documents can be done with tools like the Microsoft Accessibility Checker.

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word includes various accessibility features that help users access content quickly. One can access this option in the File menu under Options > Accessibility.
From there, users can turn on settings such as high contrast mode, which changes text and background colors to improve visibility. Zoom adjustments can also allow users to customize their view of documents. Microsoft also provides an extensive guide for creating accessible documents in Word, including instructions for adding alt-text descriptions to images.”To ensure your Microsoft Word documents are ADA compliant, follow this checklist:

• Use built-in heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) to structure your document
• Provide alt text for images and tables
• Use bullets or numbers for lists

Microsoft Excel

Accessibility issues in Microsoft Excel can start with the physical design of the program itself. Excel’s menus and ribbons can be difficult to navigate by accessibility tools. This is why Microsoft Excel offers accessibility options such as High Contrast Mode, Adjustable Color Settings, Magnifier Tool, and Screen Reader Support.
These options make Microsoft Spreadsheets fully compatible with assistive technology such as screen readers like JAWS and NVDA.Microsoft Excel:

• Include a title for the worksheet and provide a message indicating the end of the table
• Avoid blank cells for formatting purposes
• Ensure each sheet tab has a unique and relevant name
• Avoid merging cells

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint includes the following features, which facilitate the creation of accessible PowerPoint presentations:

• Keyboard Shortcuts: Shortcuts can quickly navigate through a presentation, such as switching between slides. This makes it easier for those with difficulty using a traditional pointing device like a mouse.
• Alt-Text: This feature allows users to add descriptive text to images and other objects in a presentation so that people who are blind or partially sighted can access that content.
• Accessible Themes: Microsoft has provided several templates specifically designed with accessibility in mind. This makes navigating through their presentations easier for people using assistive technology.

Microsoft PowerPoint:

• Include captions for videos in your presentations
• Ensure sufficient color contrast between text and background
• Provide alt text for images, charts, and graphs”

Google Drive Files

Google Drive provides a range of accessibility features like voice recognition, dictation, text-to-speech, closed captioning support, and high-contrast themes. Google Drive has also implemented the Accessibility Checker tool, which allows users to quickly identify potential accessibility issues in their documents before sharing them with others.
Apart from these inbuilt tools, testers can use add-ons such as Grackle, which is available for all formats like doc, slides, and sheets.

Google Docs

Google offers several accessibility features in Google Docs:

• Speech Input: This feature allows users with motor disabilities to access the same tools available through typing by speaking into the microphone built into the device.

Google Slides

Google Slides increase accessibility by providing alternative text descriptions, or alt tags, on images used within the slides. Alt tags help with search engine optimization, which results in slides showing up higher in search results when relevant keywords are used.
Audio recordings also can be added directly to the slide decks. This is ideal if presenters want to speak aloud but are not physically present during delivery.

Apart from this, add-ons like Grackle can help test the slides for accessibility.

Google Sheets

There are several ways that one can make Google Sheets more accessible, including setting up the computer’s display settings. Enabling zoom functions also allow better readability as one can magnify specific areas of text that may otherwise be too small to view comfortably on screen.
Several plugins allow users to customize how data appears inside sheets, like adding borders around individual cells or improving text line spacing. Grackle sheets are one plugin that helps catch all accessibility issues.

Other Files

Accessible documents should be formatted using standards like headings, subheadings, a bold typeface for emphasizing words or phrases, or tables with captions describing what they’re showing where relevant. Links can also be added to support information or sources at the end of a document.
Accessibility in HTML and XML documents is an essential part of web development. Several tools can help users check for a document’s accessibility, including AccessibilityNow Validator, WAVE, AChecker, and Lighthouse.

By running these checks against HTML documents, feedback is provided about where there might be issues related to usability or compliance with WCAG standards. This lets users know what needs fixing before going live with a site.

The W3C has also created several guidelines, which include the use of semantic markup wherever possible.”To ensure your PDFs are ADA compliant, follow this checklist:

• Ensure that text is searchable
• Use hidden (Alt) text to describe images
• Documents over nine pages require bookmarks
• Use tags to map the content
• Arrange tables from left to right
• Avoid background images and watermarks
• Ensure table rows fit within the page width”

Document Accessibility Guidelines

Apart from recommendations, users should also know important accessibility guidelines for different document types.

A few common guidelines to ensure document accessibility are:

• A unique and relatable title for the content improves accessibility when read through any assistive technology.
• Specifying the document’s language avoids confusion since assistive technology cannot identify language unless specified.
• Add descriptive hyperlink text instead of the URL or generalized terms like “click here” and “more” as this will provide clarity to the reader when links are presented out of context.
• Use paragraph spacing instead of carriage returns when additional line spacing is needed between paragraphs.
• Lists created can be numbered if ordered, or one can use bullet points for lists without order.
• Choose two colors that are quite apart on the color wheel and have a contrast ratio of a minimum of 4.5:1 to make the text readable for those with low vision.
• Avoid using background images behind the text, as this may reduce legibility and make it hard for those with low vision or dyslexia to read content quickly and accurately. Instead, use a solid background so readers always know what they’re looking at without having to strain their eyes.
• Avoid decorative fonts, which may be difficult to read for people with cognitive disabilities.
• Select an appropriate font and set it to the correct size for legibility on screen or in print.
• Any chart representation must have proper specifications of axis labels and titles.
• Watermarks, if legal, can be used, and text-based is preferred over image-based watermarks. This means the name should be mentioned at the beginning of the document or included in the file name.
• Ensure that page numbers are inserted using tools and not manually numbered.
• Tables should consist of headings, rows, and columns of related information that are clearly labeled. Merging more than two adjacent cells into one violates WCAG guidelines because it prevents assistive technology from correctly reading out individual cell contents.
• Captions or transcripts are essential components of multimedia access for individuals with hearing loss or auditory processing issues.

Guidelines for Microsoft Word

Guidelines for ensuring that Microsoft Word documents are accessible are given below:

• Ensure the page margins are set to the desired size, typically 1 inch for all sides of a document.
• Line spacing is consistent throughout the document, with single or double spacing as preferred.
• Insert headers and footers to add helpful information such as chapter titles, dates, or author details at either end of each page.
• Add tables or images to the document using MS Word tools, and ensure proper formatting.
• Spell check & proofread carefully.

Guidelines for Spreadsheets

Follow the guidelines given below to ensure accessibility in spreadsheets:

• Use a simple table structure with column header information. Header information is used to identify rows and columns for those using assistive technology.
• Add a table title in the first cell of the first column of the worksheet so those using assistive technology can find it easily.
• Avoid blank cells, rows, and columns. If empty cells are needed, mark them with a minus sign, a zero, or N/A for not applicable.
• Avoid merging cells, as navigating the spreadsheet can be difficult for those using assistive technology.
• Give sheet tabs unique names and remove blank sheets. This will aid in the navigation of the spreadsheet.
• Every chart must have a title, a legend, and axis labels.

Guidelines for PowerPoint

Guidelines for creating accessible PowerPoint presentations are:

• Ensure each slide has unique titles and, if listed, has numberings and bullets.
• Avoid text boxes, Word Art, and automatic slide transitions to improve accessibility.
• Avoid flashing effects or animations that could cause seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy conditions.
• The player controls for videos embedded in PowerPoint are inaccessible. Consider adding a link to the video on YouTube or Vimeo.
• Check if the slides are placed in a logical order in the Outline Panel.
• Avoid cramming a lot of information on a slide, as it can be confusing and unreadable.