General Accessibility Tips

When creating documents, it’s important to assure that your content is accessible. There are a few basic concepts that are common regardless of the specific application you are using to create your document.

For each of these tips, if you need more detailed application-specific details, see the “best practices” pages for Microsoft Word and Google Docs, Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides, Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, Adobe Acrobat, Canvas, and Email.

Use properly formatted headings to structure the document

Sighted users skim through a document and use visual clues such as font size and style to identify headings separating one part of a document from another.

People who use assistive technology can do the same thing: Screen readers allow users to bring up a list of all headings in a document so that the user can quickly jump from section to section to find what they need.

However, if headings are only defined visually by manually changing the font, size, and style, assistive technology cannot distinguish a header from other formatted text.

Be sure to set proper headings in your document so that assistive technology can recognize the document structure.

Format lists as bulleted or numbered lists

If a list is formatted with the application’s list tools, assistive technology can let users know when they are entering or leaving a list, how many items the list has, which item they are on, and other such information. Text-only lists do not allow the assistive technology to determine this information.

Most applications will automatically recognize when a list is being typed and automatically convert it from a text-only list to a properly formatted list. Be sure to check your lists to be sure they have been properly formatted.

Ensure link text makes sense on its own

Assistive technology users can bring up a list of every link in a document, allowing them to quickly skim through the links and find which ones they may want to follow. However, this only works well when the links use descriptive text rather than phrases like “click here” or “website”. When linking to other locations, consider whether the linked text tells a user where it will take them when read on its own without the surrounding text for context.

URLs should generally be linked using descriptive text rather than presented “bare” (such as https://www.example.com/), as screen readers will read bare URLs word- or character-by-character. Think about how many URLs include long strings of random mixed-case characters and digits and how useful it would be to listen to that read aloud!

Provide alternative text descriptions for all images

Alternative text descriptions, often abbreviated as “alt text”, describe the content or purpose of an image so that users with visual disabilities can still understand the purpose of the image. Alt text can be very simple or quite complex, depending on the image and how it is being used.

In most applications, alt text can be added by right-clicking on the image and looking for a menu item titled something like “Edit alt text”.

When writing alt text, consider what’s most important about the image. This may change depending on the context! For example, a photo of a group of students working together might be described as “Highline students studying” on a general-purpose webpage but be described as “several Highline students of various genders and skin tones, two of whom are wearing hijabs, study together as a group” on a webpage discussing Highline’s diversity.

Images that include complex data, tables, or graphs may have alt text that summarizes the data rather than copying it out verbatim. For example, alt text such as “a table of average temperatures for several worldwide cities over ten years showing every city’s average temperature increasing over time” might convey the information better than copying the data into the alt text would.

Keep images inline

Word processors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs allow you to “float” images on the page so that text wraps around the image. However, this usually means that assistive technology doesn’t know when to read the alt text defined for the image, resulting in the alt text either being read at a time that doesn’t make sense or simply ignored. Keep images inline (as their own paragraph) to avoid this issue.

Use tables for data (not for layout) and use column headers

Tables are a very useful way to present data, and to help assistive technology users keep track of where they are in a table, screen readers can announce where the user is in a table as they navigate around (“row two, column four”, for example). However, if tables are used for layout to place text blocks and images in particular places, screen reader users are forced to listen to the extra location information as they try to navigate the document. Tables should only be used for presenting tabular data, not to design the layout of a document.

Defining row and column headers gives users extra context for the data they are reviewing. For example, a table about temperature changes across years that does not have row and column headers might be read as “row two, column four, 80 degrees”, while a table with row and column headers can be read as “Springfield, 1995 Summer High, 80 degrees”. Set row and column headers to be sure users are able to understand all the information in a table.

Use sufficient color contrast; don’t convey content with color alone

When choosing text and background colors, make sure that there is enough contrast between the color choices that the text can be easily read. Tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker can help determine color choices that meet suggested contrast ratio guidelines.

Color should not be the only way to distinguish important content. For example, a spreadsheet or graph that uses green for positive values and red for negative values may not be understandable to a user who is red/green colorblind. Color may be used, but additional contextual clues (such as formatting, +/- indicators, or using patterns for lines and bars in charts and graphs) should be incorporated as well.

Use accessibility checker features when available

As you work, and before finalizing a document, use an accessibility checker to review your document if one is available in your application. All Microsoft Office applications include an accessibility checker; in Google Docs, use the Grackle extension provided by Highline College.