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Importance of manual accessibility checks

Digital accessibility is ever changing and though we have access to Microsoft Word’s accessibility checker, or in some cases Dania Assist, they do not cover everything.

Throughout the new redesign of the North Ayrshire Council external website, you will notice the Web and Digital Experience Team are asking services to ensure all documents are accessible.

IT are no longer able to accept any inaccessible documents due to regulations and guidance agreed with Chief Officers.

Below is a compiled a list of the manual checks required for each document. This is in addition to those your accessibility checkers should be picking up.

Pen to paper checklist graphic where items are being ticked with red tick symbol
Some of the most commonly missed checks you should keep in mind are as follows:
Text sizing and font style

Text sizing and font style is important especially to ensure those with visual and cognitive impairments can read your documents easily. It is currently noted text should be at least 12 point in size. Fonts used should be sans-serif fonts, which means no fancy extras on the strokes of each letter.

Colour contrast

Styling documents can make information more engaging to read, but don’t forget about those who this could affect. By using the tools we mention in our manual accessibility checks page, you can make sure to use colours that pass the WCAG guidelines for contrast.

Readability

There is a standard for how to write out numbers, dates, times and year ranges. By following these, we keep the content consistent throughout our external site for users.

Line spacing

Assistive technology like screen readers will recognise empty paragraph spaces in documents and read them out as ‘Blank’. To avoid this, use your line spacing tool on Word. This should be a minimum of 12 point top and bottom, with the spacing set to ‘Single’.

Alternative text

Whether you are inserting an image, creating a flowchart, providing information within a graphic or making a table within your documents, alternative text is required to allow for context to be given to users. Avoid using automatically generated alternative text.

The more you carry out these checks or set up your documents from the start with these rules in mind, the more natural it will become and save you time in the long run. Please ensure you are keeping up to date with IT’s manual checks page for full details.

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