3 steps for prioritizing digital accessibility

Step 1: Set accessibility goals by learning about accessibility

The first step to prioritising digital accessibility for 2022 is to figure out exactly what goals you should set. To set those goals, you’ll need to learn more about people with disabilities who will benefit from accessibility. Get familiar with WCAG and legislation.

Step 2: Evaluate where you are now

Once you determine what your accessibility goals should be, evaluate your current content and accessibility practices, if any, to determine where you are now. Does your organisation have any kind of digital accessibility practices in place? If it does not, and if none of your digital content has been specifically tagged for accessibility, it is probably not accessible.

Step 3: Plan to reach your goals

• Take notes from other organisations

Now that you have identified what inaccessible content you have and how it can be made accessible, make a plan to reach your goals. Look at other organisations that have overcome similar digital accessibility challenges. Their strategies and tools may work for your organisation as well.

• Get everyone on board

Break the project into manageable parts and delegate tasks if you’ll be tackling accessibility in-house. Many organisations find that making each content creator responsible for making their own content accessible is the easiest way to become and stay compliant. Once you know who will be involved, plan to tackle all your inaccessible resources piece by piece.

• Get the right tools

Determine what tools you’ll need for the job. The right software makes accessibility much easier. For example, PDF remediation can be tedious and expensive, but creating accessible documents directly in Microsoft Office with a partially automated tool can make the job fast and easy for everyone.

The drawbacks of free accessibility checking tools

Any document to be shared will need to comply with WCAG. Most of these documents begin life in Microsoft Office and are then exported to PDF. Microsoft Office products have a built-in accessibility checker that can assess your document and notify you of potential problems. However, as with most things in life that come free, there are some drawbacks. The tool locates and flags some but not all accessibility errors and does not specifically check for WCAG compliance. There are many more steps to follow manually once the checker gives you the ‘all clear’.

Some of the issues not raised by the accessibility checker include:

• Document Title

• Document structure and hierarchy

• Descriptive link text

• Table formatting

• Inserted objects

• Prioritising PDF content that ensures correct reproduction in screen readers

• Document contains comments

• PDF/UA recognition

Checklists, training, and guides

Completing the issues raised in the accessibility checker is a first step. This should be supplemented by mandatory accessibility teaching and learning support for everyone creating documents so they can address the remaining issues. Finally, providing guides and checklists to accompany the educating of staff will complete the approach using the free tool.

Paid tools

Paid tools can give you the peace of mind that your documents are accessible and compliant, require little staff training and can help achieve results quickly. The image to the right shows a brief example of the issues picked up with Assist vs MS accessibility checker.