How to Create Accessible Digital Documents
Making digital documents accessible helps ensure that everyone, including people who use screen readers, keyboard navigation, or other assistive technologies, can read, understand, and navigate your content. This page introduces general accessibility principles and provides practical steps you can take to create more accessible digital documents.
These principles, such as using meaningful headings, descriptive links, alternative text, properly formatted lists, and clearly structured tables, apply broadly to many types of digital content, including word-processed documents, HTML webpages, and PDF files. The specific steps for applying them will vary depending on the authoring tool and type of content.
This guide includes specific instructions for Microsoft Word and Google Docs, two word-processing tools supported by Pacific University. The same underlying principles can also be applied when creating content with other authoring tools.
1. Use Accessible Fonts, Formatting, and Contrast
Use clear, easy-to-read fonts, such as Arial or Calibri, in a sufficiently large size, generally at least 12-point type for body text. Make sure there is strong contrast between the text and its background, such as black text on a white background. Body text should generally be left-aligned, and fully justified text should be avoided when possible.
Avoid decorative fonts, very small text, and color combinations that have insufficient contrast or are difficult to distinguish, such as some shades of green text on a red background. Do not use color alone to communicate meaning. For example, if you use red text to identify important information, also label that text as “Important.”
Legible fonts and strong color contrast make documents easier to read for everyone, particularly people with low vision, color-vision deficiencies, or reading and cognitive differences.
Resources: Review Microsoft’s guidance on using accessible formatting and color in Microsoft Word and Google’s guidance on making documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and videos more accessible.
2. Create Lists Using Built-In Tools
When presenting a series of related items, use the built-in bulleted or numbered list tools in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or other word-processing software. Do not create lists manually by typing dashes, numbers, or other symbols.
Built-in list formatting provides structure that helps screen readers identify the list, announce how many items it contains, and allow users to move through the items more easily. Use numbered lists when the order or sequence matters and bulleted lists when it does not.
Resources: Follow Microsoft’s instructions for creating bulleted or numbered lists in Microsoft Word or Google’s instructions for creating bulleted and numbered lists in Google Docs.
3. Use Descriptive Hyperlink Text
When adding a hyperlink, use link text that clearly describes the destination or purpose of the link. Avoid vague phrases such as “click here,” “read more,” or “learn more,” and do not use a long web address as the visible link text.
Descriptive link text helps people who use screen readers understand where a link will take them, even when they navigate through a list of links without reading the surrounding text. For example, use “ADA Title II Web Accessibility Rule” as the linked text instead of “click here.”
How to add a descriptive hyperlink
- Microsoft Word: Select the descriptive text you want to use as the hyperlink. On the Insert tab, select Link.
- Google Docs: Select the descriptive text you want to link and choose Link from the Insert menu.
Resources: Follow Microsoft’s instructions for creating or editing a hyperlink in Microsoft Word or Google’s instructions for creating a link in Google Docs.
4. Add Alt Text to Images
Every image that conveys information or performs a function, such as an image that links to another webpage, needs a text description called alternative text, or alt text.
Alt text enables people who cannot see an image, including people who use screen readers, to understand the information or function it provides. The University of Minnesota’s guide to writing alternative text provides an overview of how to create effective image descriptions.
If an image is purely decorative and does not convey information, mark it as decorative when that option is available. When the software does not provide a decorative-image option, leave the alt text field empty.
How to add alt text to an image
- Microsoft Word: Right-click the image and select View Alt Text.
- Google Docs: Select the image, choose Image options, and then select Alt text.
Resources: Follow Microsoft’s instructions for adding alt text to images and other objects in Microsoft Word or Google’s instructions for adding alt text and improving accessibility in Google Docs.
5. Use Built-In Heading Styles for Section Headings and Titles
When adding section headings, titles, or other labels within a document, use the built-in title and heading styles in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or other word-processing software. Do not create headings simply by making text bold, italicized, or larger.
Built-in heading styles provide an underlying structure that helps screen-reader users identify sections and navigate from one heading to another.
Use the Title style for the document’s main title and heading styles for sections and subsections. Keep headings in a logical, nested order. For example, do not skip directly from Heading 1 to Heading 3. A Heading 3 should appear only within a section introduced by a Heading 2.
How to add headings
- Microsoft Word: Select the heading text, go to the Home tab, and choose Heading 1, Heading 2, or Heading 3 from the Styles gallery.
- Google Docs: Select the heading text and choose Heading 1, Heading 2, or Heading 3 from the styles menu in the toolbar.
Resources: Follow Microsoft’s instructions for adding headings in Microsoft Word or Google’s instructions for adding titles and headings in Google Docs.
6. Use Tables for Data
Use tables to organize data, not to control the visual layout of a document. Create tables with the built-in table tools rather than using tabs, spaces, or manually drawn lines.
Give each column a clear heading and identify the first row as the table’s header row. Keep tables simple, and avoid merged or split cells, nested tables, and completely blank rows or columns.
Clear headings and simple table structures help people who use assistive technologies understand the relationships among the table’s cells and navigate its contents more easily.
Resources: Review Microsoft’s guidance on creating accessible tables in Microsoft Word and Google’s guidance on creating accessible content and tables in Google Docs.
7. Use the Built-In Accessibility Checker in Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word includes an Accessibility Checker that can identify many common accessibility issues and provide guidance for correcting them.
To run the checker, select Check Accessibility on the Review tab. In some versions of Word, you can also select File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility.
Important: The Accessibility Checker is an excellent review tool, but it cannot identify every possible accessibility problem. Review your document manually as well, particularly the accuracy of alt text, heading organization, link descriptions, table structure, and reading order.
Google Docs does not currently include a built-in accessibility checker.
Resource: See Microsoft’s instructions for finding and correcting issues with the Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker.
8. Be Careful When Saving a Word or Google Document as a PDF
Creating an accessible source document is an important first step, but exporting a document as a PDF does not automatically guarantee that the PDF will be accessible. After creating a PDF, check the resulting file for accessibility problems.
Microsoft Word
Before exporting the document, run Microsoft Word’s Accessibility Checker and correct the issues it identifies.
When saving the document as a PDF, make sure Word is set to include accessibility tags. The available options vary by operating system and version of Word. In Word 2021 for Windows, select File > Save As, choose PDF as the file type, select Options, and make sure Document structure tags for accessibility is selected.
This option helps preserve structural information such as headings, lists, links, and alternative text in the PDF. The exported PDF should still be checked to confirm that its tags, reading order, links, tables, and image descriptions are correct.
Resource: Review Microsoft’s instructions for creating accessible PDF files from Microsoft Office documents.
Google Docs
Google Docs may preserve some document structure when a file is downloaded as a PDF, but it does not provide options for reviewing or controlling the accessibility structure of the exported file.
When a PDF is required, Microsoft Word is generally the preferred authoring tool because it provides specific options for preserving accessibility tags during export. When possible, also provide the original accessible Google document or another accessible version of the content.