Accessible Documents

Information for multiple document types

• Use RoboBraille document converter to create accessible PDF documents or MP3 recordings. 

• Accessibility checker for Word, Excel and PowerPoint: a built in tool that will identify accessibility issues in your documents.

• Accessibility cheatsheets: guidelines for creating accessible documents in multiple versions of MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel; PDF; InDesign; and Acrobat

• Guide to Creating Accessible Electronic Materials: a resource from George Mason University with instructions for multiple document types. 

Microsoft Word 

General guidelines:

• Use heading styles to separate sections of your documents. This helps screen readers navigate easily through the pages. 

• Add alternative (Alt) text to all images, charts and graphs. For purely decorative images, use "" as the alternative text. This designation tells screen readers to skip over the image. 

• Use link text that explains the link purpose and not "click here" or the entire URL string. 

• Use true columns, true bullets and true numbering. Avoid using tabs and hard returns for space formatting. 

• Avoid colored text. If using color, provide an alternate mode of conveying meaning such as patterns or shapes. 

Detailed resources:  

• MS Word Accessibility Checker or Google Docs Accessibility Checker: a built in tools that will identify accessibility issues in your documents.

• WebAIM Microsoft Word document recommendations 

• Video: Eight Steps To Creating Accessible Microsoft Word Documents 

Adobe PDF

General guidelines:

• Start with an accessible Word document to create an accessible PDF document.

• Use the columns feature, not tables, for formatting blocks of text. 

• If starting with a scanned image use OCR (optical character recognition) to retrofit accessibility.

Detailed resources: 

• Video: Eight Essentials for Creating Accessible PDF Documents

• Create Accessible PDF's from multiple document types

• Recognize text in scanned documents using Adobe

• Recognize text in scanned documents using RoboBraille

• Video: Recognizing Text in Scanned PDF Documents

See Creating Accessible Presentations for information on PowerPoint documents.