Creating accessible documents

• To reduce the reading load, select familiar sans serif fonts such as Arial or Calibri.
• Avoid using all capital letters and excessive italics or underlines.
• Use 12-point font size or above.

Long, complicated text slows the customer journey. It leads to misunderstanding and avoidable contact for clarification.

Where you need to use technical terms, abbreviations or acronyms, explain what they mean the first time you use them.

Guidance

• A to Z style guide
• Capital letters
• Writing copy for the web gives some suggestions about how to write for an online audience.

• Do not use a colour to convey a meaning.
• Use sufficient colour contrast between text and background (contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text).
• Use black and white as a default - and if you use colour, make sure the contrast meets Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 . You can use the WebAIM: Contrast checker

• Adjust paragraph spacing to avoid blank lines through the Paragraph formatting menu.
• Ensure page breaks are used when starting a new page.
• Use formatting view to check for empty lines.
• Use Page Layout tab then Columns to properly insert a column.
• Avoid using spaces and tabs, it will not be recognized as a column by assistive technology.
• Use Bullets, Numbering, or Multilevel List options to create lists properly.

Using heading styles is one of the most important accessibilities features you can add to your documents.

Always use the heading styles which can be found in the Home Menu to style headings in order as Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, Heading 4, Heading 5.

How to view styles

1. Go to the Home tab
2. Select > Styles and then select the heading you want, such as the Heading 1.

Video

• Improve accessibility with heading styles

Alternate text (alt text) is read by screen readers to tell people what an image shows.

• Add Alternative text, or alt text.
• Mark images that contain no information or meaning as "decorative", so they aren't picked up by an assistive device.
• Set wrapping style of images as "In line with text".

Video

• Add alternative text to a shape, picture, chart, SmartArt graphic, or other object

Only use tables as a way of presenting data. You should not use tables as a way of formatting text on a page, because it is not accessible and can make information more difficult to understand.

To make a table accessible

• The font sizes, styles and colour contrast must meet accessibility standards
• A header row must be assigned (and which does not allow a row to be broken across pages, and does repeat as a header row at the top of each page)
• Every column must have a title in the header row
• Alt-text (title and description) must be added
• A caption needs to be added
• No merged columns or rows
• Every column must have a title
• Review table properties: uncheck "allow row to break across pages" and check "repeat as header row at the top of each page".

Ensure header rows don't break across pages

This is a very important step do not miss it.

1. Select > the header row to your table
2. Right-click on your table and select > Table Properties option
3. In the Table Properties window, select > the Rows tab
4. Make sure that the Allow row to break across page is unchecked
5. Make sure the Repeat as header row at the top of each page is checked

Add alt text to your table

1. Whilst you are in the table properties select the alt text and add the alt text and description
2. Or Right-click your table and select the Table Properties option
3. Select the Alt Text tab. Insert your table title and description and select OK.

Add a table caption

1. In the > reference tab, select > the Insert caption tool
2. Select > the label you want to use table or create a new label
3. Insert > your table title
4. Choose where you want it to appear either above or below the table

Video

• Create accessible tables in Word

Add accessible hyperlink text and ScreenTips

People who use screen readers sometimes scan a list of links. Links should convey clear and accurate information about the destination. For example, avoid using link texts such as "Click here," "See this page," "Go here," or "Learn more." Instead include the full title of the destination page. You should also add ScreenTips that appear when your cursor hovers over text or images that include a hyperlink. The link must be styled as a hyperlink.

How to add a hyperlink in a document

1. Highlight the word you want to add a link from
2. Select > insert link
3. Paste the link in the address
4. Select > Screen tip and add an alt text > OK
5. Ensure the link is styled as a hyperlink

To edit a link

1. Select the link and right-click to open the context menu, then find and select Edit Hyperlink
2. Select > Screen tip and add alt text > OK
3. Ensure the link is styled as a hyperlink

• Create accessible links
• Creating accessible hyperlinks gives advice on writing hyperlink text.

All documents submitted for publication on the Kirklees website must have their document properties filled in.

The document owner, or the agency which produced the document, is responsible for filling the document properties in.

• Add a descriptive title to the document through the Info section of the File tab.
• Use a meaningful file name for the document.
• Add the author name
• Keywords Comma-separated list of words or phrases that people would use to search the document

Filling in document properties tells you how to do this.

Use the Microsoft accessibility checker tool - The checker assists with finding accessibility errors in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

Although the checker can find a variety of issues, it does not find every possible error.

If you get a clean bill from the accessibility checker, you still need to manually check the heading structure and make sure links use descriptive hyperlink text.

Guidance

• Select > Review
• Choose > Check accessibility
• The accessibility assistant pane will appear on the right-hand side of your screen, where you can review and fix accessibility issues.
• Click > on the error messages and follow the instructions to fix the errors.

• Make your content accessible to everyone with the Accessibility Checker
• Improve accessibility with the Accessibility Checker

Exporting to a PDF

When exporting your Word document to PDF, you need to understand how to preserve accessibility. In order for an Adobe PDF document to be accessible, it must be a 'tagged' PDF, with an underlying tagged structure that includes all of the features described above.

Remember, it is best practice to run Word's accessibility checker and fix any issues before exporting to PDF, and you are strongly urged to do so.

• Click on File
• Select > save as
• In the drop-down menu under the title change document type from > word document (*.docx) to > PDF(*.pdf)
• Click on > more Options
• Select Optimize for: Standard (publishing online and printing)
• Tick > Open file after publishing
• Click on > Options
• In the option pane tick the following
• Tick Document under publish what
• Tick Create bookmarks using: Headings
• Tick Document properties
• Tick Document structure tags for accessibility
• Select > OK

Guidance

• Accessibility Checker (Kofax)