SAIF: Making Information Accessible
Guidelines for producing accessible printed and electronic information
Specific Guidelines
The sections below cover some common types of electronic communication. The guidelines for the first 3 sections are applicable to Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat Professional and Microsoft PowerPoint respectively. They may be applicable to other software packages.
The guidelines for the remaining sections can be applied universally.
Making Word Documents Accessible
- If using Arial font, use Point 12 as a minimum. Point 14 is preferable.
- If using any other font, find a Point size equal in size to Arial 12 or 14, for example Verdana Point 11 or 13.
- Structure your document using Styles.
- Use Styles to create blank space around paragraphs.
- Use the built-in table tools when creating columns of text.
- Provide Meta (extra) Information about your document.
- Keep a plain text version of documents for braille transcription and screen-readers.
- Print on a matt paper to avoid glare caused by some gloss papers.
- The text used for Hyperlinks should be specific, for example “SAIF’s website” rather than “Click here”.