Accessibility Guidance: Overview

Overview

This guidance is designed to help staff create different document formats (Word, Pdf, PowerPoint) for their academic research and teaching which meet appropriate accessibility criteria.

As a public body the University is covered by the new accessibility requirements for public bodies, which came into effect in September 2019.

Please note there is a separate Disability Support libguide which covers some issues associated with this.

Accessibility components

Typefaces

• Use easy to read fonts such as sans serifs (Ariel, Calibri etc.)
• Use bold for emphasis (avoid italics and underlining for this purpose)
• Ensure colour of text offers sufficient contrast with the background

Presentation and Layout

• Use pre-set heading options – in Word these come under the ‘Styles’ bar at the top in the menu screen
• Align text to the left and avoid columns where possible and text boxes which are embedded within a wider body of text
• Only use tables where essential, ensuring headings are put in first row

Images

• Provide textual descriptions for any images/diagrams (ALT text)

Navigation

• Aim to allow the document to be navigated by keyboard by ensuring the ‘tab order’ is set up
• Ensure hyperlinks are clear and embedded

General

• Website content should reflow and reformat when magnified
• Consider ‘alternative formats’ such as audio recordings, and the provision of transcripts where possible