Accessible Office templates
From autumn 2018, a accessibility directive was applied to all EU countries. This means that the public sector and state municipal companies must meet the accessibility requirements (EN301549). Documents published on the Internet must be accessible so that the information can be perceived by people with different types of disabilities. Some of the requirements for documents are:
- Document structure must be interpretable by a screen reader.
- Images, charts and other objects must be labeled with an alternative text that explains its content.
- Headings should be created with styles that ensure they are at the right level. It is also important that the headings in documents have a correct hierarchical order.
- Colors must have contrast in order for text and illustrations to be as clear as possible.
- Tables must be created with a simple structure.
- Images and other objects should not be floating.
Sample project – Municipality of Södertälje
Rabarber developed stylish and easy-to-use templates for the municipality of Södertälje according to their visual identity, including templates for presentations, charts as well as templates for Word for many different types of documents. Users can choose to create common “office documents” such as letters, minutes and reports. They can also choose from a number of different layout templates for flyers, posters and leaflets.
It was also important for the municipality of Södertälje to be able to create accessibel documents according to the accessibility requirements. Documents should be able to meet the accessibility requirements, but still keep the graphic design and visual identity. Therefore, we created special document templates that are accessibility adapted to the municipality of Södertälje. The accessibility-adapted templates have a somewhat simplified structure against other document templates, but still the same graphic design.
The users can find all templates in a menu, with a specific category for accessibility templates.
The users have quick access to all accessible templates in a menu on the Home tab.
Accessible PDF documents
When you have correct accessible Office documents, you will have no problems in creating accessible PDF documents. Save your accessible Word document as a PDF. All you will have to do is to make some finishing touch-up on your PDF and then you can publish your document online.
