Instructions for creating accessible documents in different programs.
Consider our "Fast Five" essentials for preparing materials for your courses:
Apple
Headings in Pages
Type the text you want into Pages.
Select a sentence/phrase that you want to become a heading.
Select Format.
Select the heading you want, such as the Heading 1 button.
See also: Intro to paragraph styles in Pages | Mac help.
Google Workspace
Use the Grackle plugin as the in-program accessibility checker for Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets.
https://swatkb.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ACADTECH/pages/edit-v2/20909681#Google-Docs
Common Grackle Error Chrome can get confused when there is more than one user logged in to a browser, and it causes add-ons to hang. Visit Grackle not responding for possible solutions.
Exporting directly from Google Docs to PDF is not your most accessible option. The most accessible option is to export the document into Microsoft Word first, and then follow those steps to make your PDF accessible. However, you can make your Google Doc more accessible by using Grackle. Grackle is a plugin that acts as an accessibility checker.
Microsoft Documents
Make your Excel documents accessible to people with disabilities
Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities
Make your Word documents accessible to people with disabilities
Using Word's Style Gallery to Create Structure in Your Document
Instructions for the Microsoft Office Suite
For Microsoft Office Suite documents such as those created with Word, Powerpoint, or Excel, we highly recommend the LinkedIn Learning course, Digital Accessibility for the Modern Workplace.
All Office Suite documents have an Accessibility Checker built-in. Go to the Review menu and select Check Accessibility.
PDFs
Creating Accessible PDFs on LinkedIn Learning
Use Acrobat's built-in Action Wizard [YouTube] and choose "Make Accessible"
See Make your Word documents accessible to people with disabilities
Instructions for Improving the Accessibility of an Existing PDF
Use SensusAccess
SensusAccess is an online service that converts text- and image-based documents into different accessible formats (searchable PDFs, audio, Braille, or e-text). It is available to all Swarthmore staff, students, and faculty with a Swarthmore College email address.
The quality of the converted document is highly dependent on the quality of the original document. For example, a clearly-structured Word document will yield a better result than a poorly-scanned PDF. See Using Word's Style Gallery to Create Structure in Your Document for more information.
Scanning tips: Make sure your scans can be seen by everyone Consult this guide on high-quality scans from the University of Washington to understand what makes a scan able to be seen and read by most people. A high-quality scan contains easily-readable text, is free of marginalia, and is not skewed.
To begin converting a document, go to the SensusAccess page, upload a file, and select the appropriate format.
Take advantage of SensusAccess from anywhere
You do not have to be on campus to take advantage of this service.
Use Acrobat
PDFs are notoriously difficult to make fully accessible; however, you can make improvements by using tools from within Acrobat.
Image-only PDFs
Many PDFs are not text based even though they contain text, but how do you know? One very quick way is to try to copy a few sections and paste those sections elsewhere. If you cannot copy parts f
Other options
Take advantage of our librarians
Our librarians are well-versed in finding accessible content and can be very useful resources. Visit the library's research support page for more information.
Use the power of the internet
Another option—instead of fixing an existing PDF—is to use a web link to an HTML version of the document. Generally, HTML is one of the most accessible document formats.