Documents and Communications Accessibility

All documents and communications created by the Commonwealth must follow accessibility standards

Digital documents including Word, PDF, PowerPoint and Excel and communications such as email must be made accessible.

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What to do now

• Identify internal and publicly available digital documents in Word, PDF, Excel and PowerPoint that are actively used and retroactively make these documents accessible.
• When creating new documents in Word, PDF, Excel and PowerPoint, test each file for accessibility and address any errors before finalizing.
• Make sure anyone who creates documents is trained in accessible document practices so that documents don’t have to be remediated by someone else prior to publication online.
• Test accessibility and remediate errors for emails going forward.

Helpful resources

• Microsoft Accessibility Checker (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote)
• Guidance on Applying WCAG 2 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (W3C)
• Learn how to make and test accessible documents:
  • Foundational principles to help make electronic documents accessible
  • Accessible Electronic Documents
  • Document accessibility training modules produced by State of Minnesota
  • Create accessible MS Word documents
  • PDF Forms Accessibility
  • Make documents accessible
• Microsoft Outlook email accessibility
• Mailchimp email campaign accessibility
• Constant Contact email campaign accessibility
• Make your SharePoint site accessible