Making documents accessible

How to make documents accessible to as many people as possible.

Under the Equality Act 2010, you're legally required to make sure your website meets accessibility standards.

GOV.UK has information on understanding accessibility requirements for public sector bodies.

Writing accessible documents

Follow these principles when you write a document.

Keep language simple

Research shows that most users prefer simple language, including specialist audiences. This helps users to understand and process information quickly.

Follow our content principles for using clear and simple language.

Use a simple document structure

Layout your text in a single continuous column to make your document more accessible.

Make sure you:

  • give the document a meaningful title
  • use a sans serif font like Arial or Helvetica
  • do not skip heading levels, for example H2 to H4
  • make sure the text is left aligned, not justified
  • avoid underlining, except for links
  • only use tables for data and make sure they're simple, avoid splitting or merging cells
  • use table headers

Do not use:

  • presentation features such as colour, bold, italics or alignment to convey meaning
  • directional instructions like ‘click the big green button’ that rely on a user being able to see the page

Make images and charts accessible

Think about how you’ll make images and charts accessible to people with visual impairments.

You can either

  • make the same point in the text of the document, so people with visual impairments get the information they need, the image or chart is there as an extra for people who are able to see it
  • write alt text (‘alternative text’) to explain what's in the image or chart

Run accessibility checks

Most software comes with a basic accessibility checker. Use this feature to make sure your document is accessible.

If you're not sure how to do this, search ‘run an accessibility check [name of software]’ in your search engine.

Check GOV.UK for information on testing with different assistive technologies.

Format specific guidance

Follow the guidance on structuring and tagging your document in an accessible way if you’re using:

If you’re creating another type of office document (for example a spreadsheet or presentation), there’s guidance on how to make it accessible on the Accessible Digital Office Document Project website.

PDFs

Publish in HTML wherever possible.

PDFs are difficult to use with assistive technology and are unlikely to meet the accessibility standards required by law.

PDF documents:

  • make your content harder to find, use and maintain
  • do not work well with assistive technologies like screen readers a lot of the time
  • do not meet the same level of accessibility as well-designed web content

If you must publish a PDF, make sure your source document is accessible before you convert it.

Make sure you meet government accessibility requirements and WCAG 2.2 standards.

Accessibility resources

See:

Forms

Build forms in HTML where possible or build digital services using components from our design system.

Publish forms in OpenDocument (.odt) if you cannot use HTML.

If you need to publish a form, follow the form guidance.

Spreadsheets

If you are creating a spreadsheet, follow the making analytical publications accessible guidance.