Creating Universal Office Content

1. Do not rely on color alone to communicate information or convey meaning
2. Do not use pale blue text (first color noticed with degradation of sight)
3. Use alternative (alt) text
4. Think about tab order
5. Use tables only when necessary
6. Do not rely on sound
7. Use short sentences
8. Be thoughtful with word choice

Organization

• Create structure and order in documents through consistent use of heading and paragraph styles (tags), which provide a logical reading order
• Consider providing a table of contents or bookmarks to assist users in navigating documents and finding information quickly

Graphics and Images

(pictures, clip art, shapes, SmartArt, groups, embedded objects, video, audio, charts)

• Only include graphics and images that communicate or support meaning
• Use alternate (alt) text or captions to provide a title for all images, including icons, and a brief description of what the image depicts, when necessary
• Include white space around graphics
• Add long descriptions for complex images, e.g. charts, graphs

Color

• Choose foreground and background color combinations that provide sufficient contrast and allow users to distinguish between
• Do not use color alone to communicate meaning

Links

• Avoid using phrases such as "Click here" or "Click here for information on best practices"
• Use the typical blue, underlined text for links
• Use concise, descriptive, and meaningful links (warn if link opens in a new window)

Language

• Use clear and simple language, chunking text into small sections
• Use only a single column of text
• Target a reading score of 60-70 (7.0-8.0 grade level) for a general audience (the higher the score, the easier to understand)

Tables and Charts

• Avoid including large tables or provide a textual description to accompany the table
• Clearly label the first cells in header rows and first cells in column rows
• Ensure readability from left-to-right
• Repeat header rows when tables exceed a single page
• Avoid letting table rows break across the page

Control

• Do not set automatic actions that the user cannot control, e.g. pop-up windows, videos, music

Text

• Avoid large blocks of italicized, capitalized text
• Use relative font sizes
• Avoid moving, blinking and auto-refreshing text
• Use real text rather than text within graphics
• Select basic, simple, easy to read fonts
• Use a limited number of fonts (3 maximum)
• Avoid small font sizes
• Limit the use of font styles, i.e. italic, bold
• Do not rely on the appearance of the font alone to communicate meaning; use styles
• Ensure sufficient contrast between the text and background

Complexity

• If necessary to include complex slides, charts, tables, multimedia, or other elements, provide a detailed textual description within the document to accompany the element
  See also:
• Digital content simplification guidelines
• Rewordify is free online software for the improvement of reading, learning, & teaching 

See also:

• UDL & Accessibility Checklist

Additional Resources

Other

• Check for Office accessibility issues
• Rules used by the accessibility checker

​

Adapted from Best Practices in Online Content Accessibility: Microsoft Office by Xavier University's Instructional Design and Digital Media Department. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.