The accessibility toolkit is a compilation of resources and tools from leading experts in accessibility. Technology changes so quickly, it’s hard to keep track of changes in software. That’s why we’re pointing you straight to the source. This way, you don’t get out-of-date instructions from us, and we don’t need to constantly update the material. Use these resources to gain a better understanding of why accessibility is important, how to take an inclusive approach to content and how to test for accessibility.
Inclusive design
- Microsoft Inclusive Design Toolkit – check your approach to content accessibility by learning about inclusive design.
- Inclusive Design Research Centre – an international community of inclusive designers, developers and advocates.
- UK Home Office Designing for Accessibility posters (PDF 519.83 KB) – posters to print out and remind you how to make your content accessible for different access needs.
Understanding inclusive device personalisation
Making inclusive content decisions
1. Audit
If you haven’t done a recent content audit, evaluate your content and remove out-of-date web pages and documents. If it’s not useful, current or popular, you may be able to delete it.
2. Prioritise
Sort your remaining content by date to prioritise what needs to be made accessible first.
- Any new web content or documents need to be accessible. No exceptions.
- Prioritise legacy content created after 31 December 2014 based on:
- importance – legal or business requirement? Does it align with directorate/unit priorities? Some other obligation to have the content?
- popularity – use analytics to find out views/downloads. Do a lot of people use it? If it’s not being used, consider deleting.
- Prioritise legacy content created before 31 December 2014 based on:
- importance.
- popularity.
3. Plan
Create a timeline and assign the people responsible for making your content accessible within 6 to 12 months, depending on how much you have. Use this Google sheets accessibility planner template to start planning.
- Fill it out with your existing content (copy URLs from your content audit if you have done one).
- Give scores based on importance and popularity and give a priority number.
- Arrange in order of the priority column.
- Assign a date in the next 6 months to make accessible.
- Assign a person responsible.
- Document date completed.
4. Create with accessibility in mind
- Use the accessibility format picker to help you decide on the best format for your content. Remember, HTML is best. Unless it really needs to be a Word doc or PDF for print or editing purposes, make it a web page.
- Print these Designing for Accessibility posters (PDF 519.83 KB) to remind you and your team how to create content accessibly for different needs.
5. Health checks
Do regular audits of your content to pick up any accessibility errors.
Content Creation
Inclusive writing
- W3C Tips on writing for web accessibility – comprehensive guide to web writing accessibility
- Creating accessible Word documents
- Creating accessible PowerPoints
- Check accessibility of a PowerPoint presentation – video tutorial
- Find and fix accessibility issues in Microsoft Word – video tutorial
- Document accessibility toolbar – a free download that adds accessibility features to your Microsoft Office ribbon.
- Make your Google content accessible
- Making content findable
- Designing scannable content
- Writing in a readable style
- Creating accessible content
- Page titles
- Designing structure
- Writing headings
- Writing lists
- Writing paragraphs
- Using tables
Inclusive PDF
- Create and verify PDF accessibility – how to create accessible PDFs.
- Acrobat Pro DC Accessible Forms and Interactive Documents – how to optimise forms and interactive documents for accessibility.
- Performing OCR on a scanned PDF – using the optical character recognition tool in Acrobat to turn a scanned document into actual text.
Inclusive data
- Creating accessible Excel workbooks – what to look out for in Excel and how to optimise workbooks for accessibility.
- Accessible Math – resources and tools to make maths accessible.
Inclusive rich media
Images and graphics
- Colorsafe.co – a tool to help choose accessible colours and fonts.
- Diagrammar content model – a framework for making images and graphics accessible.
- WebAIM Alternative Text – how to correctly use alternative text.
Video
- Amara editor – free tool for video captioning, subtitles and translation.
- DIYCaptions – YouTube automatic captions editor.
- Synchrimedia MovieCaptioner – captioning software for PC/Mac desktop.
- WebAIM Captions, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions – how to create videos accessibly.
Testing accessibility
Colour contrast
- Colour Contrast Analyser – download tool to check legibility and contrast.
- Snook.ca – colour contrast checker.
- Colorsafe.co – colour picker and checker.
Websites
- WAVE browser plugin tool for Chrome – shows ARIA errors and other accessibility errors.
- Functional Accessibility Evaluator – evaluate websites against WCAG.
- Vision Australia Web Accessibility Toolbar – download toolbar to evaluate websites against WCAG.
- Wuhcag checklist – check website accessibility without the WCAG jargon.