Accessible digital content

Making content accessible

When sharing content, it is important to follow a few basic steps to assure it is readable and usable by everyone, including persons with disabilities. This page will cover digital documents, PDF remediation options and who to contact for website accessibility support. Accessible and inclusive teaching information is available on the Canvas page of this site.

Digital document basics

Some of the most common electronic document file types are Microsoft Word documents (.docx), PowerPoint slides (.pptx), Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx), Outlook emails (.eml), Google Docs/sheets/slides and PDFs.

The following content will guide through some basics in document accessibility:

For additional information, access UW Digital Accessibility > Accessibility Basics.

Google Apps

Google Docs, Slides and Sheets are other widely used applications to produce digital documents. Although these apps are easy to use and share, they do not offer the accessibility robustness that Microsoft apps have. Two of these areas are the lack of an accessibility checker and the inability to mark images as decorative.

The Accessible Documents (Part 1) and Accessible Documents (Part 2: Presentations) recorded webinars led by Gaby de Jongh, Document Accessibility Specialist and Manager of the UW Access Technology Center, provide easy to follow directions and information on creating accessible documents using Word and Google Docs as well as accessible slides using PowerPoint and Google Slides.

PDFs

Many of us developed a habit of saving files as a PDF to protect our documents, but PDFs are now easy to edit by anyone. In general, PDFs are the least accessible type of document and require additional work to fix accessibility issues. We can certainly reduce our use of PDFs, but those cases where PDFs are still necessary, there are some options to make PDFs accessible.

Remediate your own PDFs

PDF remediation requires training and the Adobe Acrobat Pro software. If you are interested in learning, please contact Ana Thompson in UW Bothell IT Academic & Collaborative Technology (ACT) to schedule individual or group training.

Requesting Adobe Acrobat Pro

Submit a Software Request to IT with a department/program/school budget number so IT can purchase the license and install the software. Currently, the cost is $50 per user for the annual subscription.

Additional options for PDF remediation

UW free online document conversion service

The UW offers an online Document Conversion Service powereds by SensusAccess to help students, faculty, and staff at the University of Washington to produce alternative versions of documents quickly and easily. The service is free to anyone with a UW NetID, and can be accessed at tinyurl.com/uw-doc-convert.

Please note the following limitations of this service:

  • This service is intended to provide a way for requesting other formats (such as MP3 audio files) or as a starting point for a file that needs remediation.
  • The source file needs to be of good quality in order to maximize conversion accuracy.
  • File outputs will require additional editing after conversion. If you have a PDF of your own content but cannot locate the source document, you can request a conversion to a MS Word file.
  • For students requesting alternate materials as an accommodation, please contact Disability Resources for Students (DRS).
UW Free PDF Remediation Service

Accessible Technology Services (ATS) will remediate a limited number of PDF documents through a service supported by UW-IT. Individuals, departments, and other units at the UW are encouraged to apply to remediate highly visible, high-impact, multiple use, and/or strategic PDF documents. Examples include:

  • PDF documents available to the public on a high-use website
  • PDF documents that will be used multiple times in a course
  • PDF documents developed by several faculty members to be used in several different classes

If you are interested in submitting one or more documents for consideration, please complete the UW PDF Document Remediation Service Application.

Third-party PDF remediation

Crawford Technologies provides document remediation services at prices and turnaround times that seem to be a good match for higher education institutions. Contact the vendor for a quote: das-quotes@crawfordtech.com.

Questions about remediation orders:

Web content support

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), version 2.1 AA is the standard used to meet Title II of the ADA Final Rule requirements for accessible web content at the University of Washington. All UW web content also must follow UW brand guidelines.

Contact UW Bothell’s Office of Marketing & Communications at uwbweb@uw.edu to get help on creating and editing accessible webpages within the uwb.edu website or other UW-connected sites you own.