2. Staff
3. Working with Blackboard

Follow these guidelines to make your document as accessible as possible

1. Follow the formatting advice below
2. Use heading styles
3. Add alternative text to images and tables
4. Use meaningful hyperlink text
5. Use list tools
6. Use tables wisely
7. Set the document language
8. Consider the tab order of the page
9. Run the Microsoft Accessibility Checker

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Formatting advice

Ariel font, size 12 and left align your text, modify Normal style to ensure consistency.

Using styles enables students to easily adapt the document to suit their individual needs by reformatting the style.

Remove multiple blank lines, use page and section breaks instead to add white space.

Those who do not use a mouse but navigate using the keyboard will have to click through every blank line; a screen reader will read out every blank line to the listener.

Avoid using large paragraphs, but add in bullet points or break up into smaller paragraphs.

Long paragraphs are harder to comprehend and can appear off-putting.

Use colour sparingly and not as the only indicator of meaning.

Those with less clear vision find coloured backgrouds reduce contrast and make a document harder to read; 9% of men are colour blind.

Avoid italics and underling for emphasis, use styles instead.

Italics are harder to read and underlining can be confused with hyperlinks. A screen reader may announce an emphasis style to the listener.