Questions? Contact Jordan Hoeft, the Center for User Experience or the UW Office of Compliance.
Resources
Digital Accessibility Checklist
1. Use plain language
Put key information up front and keep things short. Support skimming with headings, bullet points, and content summaries. Write in active voice (i.e., subject of the sentence performs the action).
2. Use contrasting colors
Make sure text and background colors are starkly different. Use a solid-color background; images behind text are distracting and make the text more difficult to read.
3. Name links appropriately
Write unique, meaningful text that describes the action or destination of the link (e.g., “Submit application” is better than “Click here to submit.”)
4. Use large text and high-quality images
Remember that people use mobile devices with small screens and use zoom-in features. Use text at least 12pt in size. Low-quality images and images of text often become fuzzy or pixelated and difficult to read.
5. Add alt text to images
Use alt text to briefly (150 characters) describe the image to people who use screen readers.
6. Use Microsoft’s Accessibility Checker
This built-in tool found under the Review tab gives details on potential issues and suggestions to correct them.
7. Use Acrobat’s Create PDF tool
If the document will be converted to a PDF, start by making sure it’s fully accessible. If Adobe Acrobat Pro is installed, use the Acrobat Tab > Create PDF tool. Avoid using “Print to PDF.”
