Accessibility in Content Writing: Creating an Accessible Document.

The role of writers and steps to make written work accessible were discussed In the previous article. It is important to note that for accessibility to be implemented efficiently, authoring tools that accommodate accessibility should be used. When authoring tools accommodate accessibility, they have features that allow best practices. These practices improve the usability of documents, whether they are read or in print. Some examples of authoring tools used in creating written documents are Google Docs, MS Word, medium, hashnode, Dropbox Paper, etc.

Some authoring tools have accessible functions embedded in them, which improve the accessibility of Word documents. Style is an integral part of the structure of a Word document. It is the most crucial accessibility feature in Microsoft Word. According to Illinois University’s definition of accessibility and inclusion, ‘Styles in Word is a collection of formatting instructions that control the visual appearance and logical structure of the text in the document.’

The Style panel controls the style. It controls the visual appearance of a document, its organization, layout, and relationship. In a nutshell, the style format is in charge of the font size, color, spacing, font type, etc. It also organizes the document into headings and subheadings, paragraphs, body text, image captions, tables, and more.

This article will explain the theological structure of documents, the proper format of images, tables, graphs, and links, and how to utilize these document properties to create accessible Word documents. At the end of the article, a writer will understand the structure of documents, learn better arrangement, create an accessible Word document, and put the best practices in place.

Logical Structure of a Word Document:

Sighted users and visually impaired users navigate the web differently. When reading, users who are sighted often skim or scan. They are aided by the varying font styles and colors used to depict hierarchy and the level of importance of content. Large texts are used to represent headings or subheadings, the least size of text can indicate captions and summary, underlined texts in a different color can represent that the content is a link, and many more representations in writing.

The case is different for users with Visual and cognitive impairment. They use assistive technology such as screen readers and brails. Some visually impaired users cannot identify distinct colors and text sizes. They use semantic markups with the help of assistive technology to access documents. This semantic markup identifies headings, lists, and other style formats.

Documents should be appropriately organized in proper style forms and structure to make navigating documents easier for users who access them differently. These users include visually impaired users, users with cognitive disabilities, and all using screen readers. The document structure consists of the following:

1. Heading / Sub-heading.
2. List
3. Paragraphs
4. Tables
5. Images
6. Color Contrast
7. Link

Heading/Subheading

This is usually in the form of headings 1- 6(H1-H6). It is traditionally used to indicate hierarchy, differences in topics, and subtopics, showing their level of importance. When styling headings and subheadings, an accurate heading style should be incorporated. Headings are not to be styled with regular texts. This is the case because of the tags. Regular texts are not recognized as headings by screen readers, no matter how they are styled(change in weight, type, or color). The Original heading style format provided by the authoring tool should be used.

The proper structure of headings and subheadings can be used to create an automatic table of contents. This can help readers, both sighted and visually impaired, scan through a document’s content and get information quicker.

List

Lists are used to group related items. They can be ordered or unordered. They are used to arrange points properly. Information should be listed instead of written out in sentence format and separated with a comma. It directs people to the primary point in a document and makes reading faster, enhancing accessibility. Lists make arrangements of items better. When items are appropriately arranged in lists, they are easier to read and understand. Essential points are identified, and it is more enjoyable to go through articles.

Paragraphs

Proper use of paragraphs is one way of implementing good structure in content writing. Paragraphs arrange texts into sizable and readable chunks according to the topic discussed. They arrange the structure of the document and make reading less tedious. Paragraphs are extra helpful for screen reader users who are either blind or have a cognitive disability. They reduce the reader’s cognitive load and help locate the crucial points. They also make scanning a lot easier.

Tables

Tables are used to arrange and organize data into tabular formats. Table data is linearized by assistive technology, and this tends to pose specific challenges for users who navigate the web using assistive technology. Assistive technology reads data cell by cell, top to bottom, left to right, one cell at a time, and this is different from the way sighted users access data.

Table headers work like the x and y coordinates of a graph, and some best practices that can help include the following:

• The first role and column should portray the frame of reference (topic).
• Tables should have captions and summaries. It helps users understand the table’s purpose. The table captions can also be used to create an appendix for the table.
• Tables should be kept simple. They should have a primary grid, column, and role.
• As much as possible, Tables should be kept on a single page instead of being broken down into several pages. It makes content more accessible to read.
• Alt text should be added to tables to explain its content and organization.

Image

Blind users have obvious challenges with images. Therefore, there should be a distinction between informative and decorative images, and the purpose they serve in the document should be highlighted as well.

Best practices for presenting informative and decorative images include the following:

• Decorative images should have null placeholders. Note that empty placeholders are different from Null.
• Informative images should be in line with the text. If placed in the graphic layer, it may not be detected at all by the assistive technology.
• Images should have alt text for Blind users.
• Just like tables, images should have captions. It gives more information on the image and can be used to generate an appendix.

Color contrast.

Proper use of color contrast benefits all users, but it is particularly beneficial for visually impaired or color-blind users. Color alone cannot convey important information or show hierarchy. Use other elements in addition to color to show hierarchy and convey important information. Text and background colors should have a sufficient color ratio.

It can indeed be mostly dependent on authoring tools, including content management system content (CMS). Following web content accessibility guidelines, WCAG, level AA, and contrast ratio requirements are at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text(14pt for bold and 18pt for regular). Level AAA requires 7:1 for small text and 4.5:1 for large font.

NB: There are evaluation tools that help check for requirement compliance.

Links

Links shed more light on important information. It often involves directing the reader to a different location. For this to be successful, Links need to have accessible descriptions. Link texts usually describe the link’s destination. It is important to tell the reader if the information they need is within the website or another location.

Descriptions such as ‘Click here’ and ‘More’ are not good descriptions and are not accessible. They do not adequately describe the link or what the link does. Color alone should not be used to depict a link. Visually impaired users will have difficulty identifying the link information.

PDF Format of Document

Portable Document Format PDF has been the international organizational standard for documents since 2008. Given its visual structure, it is not generally accessible but can be made accessible using some authoring tools. The PDF structure has three layers: the visual layer, the content layer, and the tags layer.

The visual layer controls the physical view of the document, the content layer handles the text content, and the tag layer controls the structure of the PDF, just as HTML does a website. Assistive technology such as screen readers and voice recognition use the tags layer to process and send information to users. All layers must be in sync for the document to be accessible.

Many prefer the PDF format of documents for many reasons, including for print, for complex structures like tables, and legal reasons. PDF uses tags as their underlining semantic structure. PDF semantic markup for style formats such as headings, lists, and tables have a similar basic naming structure as HTML markup. Accessible PDF documents are called tagged PDFs.

Due to their visual structure, PDF formats often have accessibility issues stemming from scanning documents and improper conversion of documents from Word to PDF. A tagged PDF is only created when the Word document is accessible.

As previously discussed, this can be achieved by using an appropriate style format, good authoring tools, and best practices to assist with accessibility checkers.

Accessibility Checkers.

It is common knowledge that an accessibility auditor or specialist takes up the role of accessibility auditing. However, every author or content writer needs to know accessibility best practices that ensure that documents are accessible. Some authoring tools have an inbuilt accessibility checker that makes this easy for writers.

Authors should learn best practices first and implement them before making use of checkers. The reason is that the use of accessibility checkers does not translate to 100% success in accessibility. Authoring tools such as Microsoft Office (word and PowerPoint) have built-in checkers that are used to test for accessibility. It only checks data inside the document.

Some of the document properties that can be checked include heading styles, missing alt text, unclear hypertext links, table headers, blank columns and rows, etc. For Authoring tools that do not have built-in checkers, there are tools available to check your documents. An example is the Accessibilator, an accessibility checker for documents.

When documents are appropriately created, it benefits all users, especially users with disabilities. Accessibility best practices are not left only for auditors and testers; authors and everyone in charge of creating Word documents should learn these best practices in their work.