Accessibility Tools
Resources for Creating Accessible Documents
In accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), the College is committed to providing training to its employees, volunteers, and individuals who provide goods, services, or facilities on behalf of Lambton College.
The following resources are available to employees to assist in creating accessible documents.
Quick Tips
DO
- Use the built-in accessibility checker
- Add alt text to non-text objects
- Create and save accessible templates for future use
- Convert accessible documents into PDF
- Use a sans serif font between 12 and 18 pt for body text
- Label images and refer to them as their image number - not description
- Ensure a contrast ratio of at least 4:5:1
DON'T
- Use large amounts of bold, underlining, italics and all caps
- Use animated text
- Use images of text
DO
- Use at least a 12 pt sans serif font
- Use built-in styles to format your document
- Create an automatic table of contents
- Provide contest for your hyperlinks
- Use the indentation and spacing option in the paragraph pane to create white space
- Start a new page by using a page break
- Use bulleted numbers and number lists
- Use page numbers
DON'T
- Use a font that is unusual or difficult to read
- Use italics or underlined text
- Use tab or enter to create white space and page breaks
- Use an image, table or graph without alt text
- Use fancy bullets
- Use text boxes
DO
- Use a built-in slide layout
- Change your slide templates through the master slide view
- Set the tab order manually for any custom slides
- Expand on the contents of a slide in the slide notes
DON'T
- Use text smaller than 30 pt
- Use transitions
- Use animations
DO
- Use named styles
- Give all your tabs a descriptive name
- Remove any unnecessary blank cells
- Specify clear and concise table headers
- Add a title and axis labels to charts
- Distinguish between lines with shape, texture and line types
DON'T
- Use colours to distinguish cells
DO
- Start with an accessible document before converting to a PDF
- Convert scanned images of text into searchable text
- Use the accessibility checker for all PDFs
DON'T
- Convert an inaccessible document to a PDF