Create accessible materials – print and digital documents

Make sure all participants can access the documents you provide them. Checking document accessibility in every format supports more people to better use, navigate, and understand your document.

Documents you could provide participants in either print and/or digital format include:

  • consultation papers
  • images
  • reports
  • posters
  • presentations
  • worksheets or forms.

Check your document’s accessibility

With all documents, make sure you:

  • Use the in-built accessibility checker in your system, such as the word processor.
  • Use plain and legible sans serif fonts in appropriate sizes.
  • Use at least 12-point or larger text size.
  • Left-align text.
  • Break information up into levels using true heading styles.
  • Use an uncluttered layout.
  • Use colour in a way that meets the latest WCAG AAA rating.
  • Use a plain background, with no background images, graphics, print, or watermarks.
  • Create wide margins if printing documents.
  • Provide alternative text (alt text) for images.
  • Print only on plain, matte, or satin-finish, non-reflective paper.
  • Provide the same text in other accessible formats.

Relevant pages on general print and digital document accessibility

Online and print inclusive design and legibility considerations (Vision Australia)

Guidelines for producing accessible e-text (2018) (Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities)

Guidelines for producing clear print (2022) (Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities)

Accessible print publications (Government of South Australia)

Accessibility guidelines for government communications (VIC Government)

Screen reader testing (University of Melbourne)

Relevant pages on content and graphic design

Plan: Create accessible materials

Plan: Create accessible materials – images and diagrams

Readability guidelines (Content Design London)

Inclusive communication tips (Council for Intellectual Disability)

AccessAbility 2: a practical handbook on accessible graphic design (RGD in partnership with the Government of Ontario)

A guide to understanding what makes a typeface accessible (The Readability Group)

Relevant pages on Word documents

Microsoft Word documents (Digital.NSW)

Microsoft Word accessibility (WebAIM)

Make your Word documents accessible to people with disabilities (Microsoft)

Create accessible Word documents video tutorials (Microsoft)

Make your Google Doc more accessible (Google)

Relevant pages on PDF documents

PAC 2021: free PDF accessibility checker (PDF/UA)

PDF documents (Digital.NSW)

PDFs and common accessibility misconception (Vision Australia)

PDF accessibility principles (AccessibilityOz)

Accessible PDF tutorials for Acrobat, InDesign and Word (Accessible-PDF.info)

PDF techniques for WCAG 2.0 (W3C)

PDF accessibility (WebAIM)

Converting documents to PDFs (WebAIM)

Create and verify PDF accessibility (Adobe)

Create accessible PDFs (Microsoft)

Relevant pages on Excel documents

Microsoft Excel (WebAIM)

Make your Excel documents accessible to people with disabilities (Microsoft)

Consider alternative formats for accessible documents

You should also consider providing print and digital documents in alternative formats to increase accessibility. These could include:

  • large print, typically 18-point font size (but can be customised)
  • braille
  • audio, such as podcasts, audiobooks, or DAISY format
  • video
  • Auslan translations
  • Easy Read – see below for more information
  • printable formats
  • web-native (HTML-first) content. This can be the most versatile and accessible way to share information. If you use a web format, use The A11Y Project checklist to quickly check your WCAG compliance.

Printable documents should be provided in Microsoft Word format where possible. Make sure PDFs are accessible, if used.

Longer documents, such as reports or books, may be better presented in EPUB or DAISY format. EPUBs are enhanced documents that provide greater functionality and structure than PDF documents. There is a free accessibility checker for EPUBs available at Ace by DAISY.

Relevant pages

How will people with disability engage with my content? (Centre for Accessibility Australia)

Guidelines for producing accessible e-text (2018) (Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities)

Guidelines for producing clear print (2022) (Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities)

Braille resources (Australian Braille Authority)

Braille formatting in Australia (Australian Braille Authority)

EPUBs (DAISY.org)

Inclusive publishing in Australia (Australian Inclusive Publishing Initiative)

DAISY format (DAISY.org)

DAISY devices (Vision Australia)

Easy Read

Easy Read is a way to increase access to information. It simplifies complex information by breaking it up into consumable chunks, and often combines text and images.

You should:

  • Pay specialists to translate documents to Easy Read for you.
  • Follow the Easy Read advice in the Australian Government Style Manual.

Many people can benefit from Easy Read. This includes people who experience barriers with concentrating/remembering or understanding information, who have low literacy, or who are not familiar with the language of the information.

Relevant pages

Easy Read (Australian Government Style Manual)

Accessible information (Towards Inclusive Practice)

Easy read guide (Government of South Australia)

Easy English checklist (VisAbility)