By Rob Spark
It’s important to keep digital accessibility in mind when creating documents, especially if these documents will be shared with other people. It’s a huge topic, but you don’t need to know everything about it to improve the accessibility of your work. By adopting these three habits you can improve the accessibility of everything you produce:
When you start a document
Create and maintain a document structure (or a reading order if you’re making slides). Keep it in mind as you make your document and review it when you’ve finished.
Before sharing, uploading or linking to a document
Run it through an accessibility checker. Nearly every software package has a built-in accessibility checker, but if it doesn’t you can open your document in a program that does have one.
When sharing your document
Share it in its original format, in advance, and make sure people can access it before any related sessions. This could include sending it as an email attachment a few days before, uploading it to Blackboard and making it available, and/or adding a link to the document in a Google calendar entry. Only convert your document if there is a specific need to do so - even then, it’s best to include the original file as an option.
If you want to find out more about digital accessibility, contact the Digital Learning Team or book a one to one.
Rob Spark is a Digital Learning Advisor, in the Digital Learning Team