Tips on making an accessible impact report

  • Colour-blindness is more prevalent than you might expect. For that reason, use colours that are least likely to cause confusion. When you pick colours, pick ones that contrast well so they can be easily seen in greyscale. Datawrapper has an inbuilt colour blindness test and you can use different colour blindness and contrast checking tools, like Contrast Radio.

  • Is your impact report accessible to people who are blind and others who cannot see the story/presentation adequately? Consider having an audio recording that describes the report or impact story with any visual information needed to understand the report also described. Check your report or webpage using a screen reader.

  • How will your report and other outputs be shared online? In Europeana Foundation we are moving away from PDFs for documents of less than 10 pages. Webpages are more accessible for screenreaders. Where we have to use a PDF, e.g. in our impact assessment reports, we also shared the executive summary on the webpage. 

  • Ensure that everyone knows what you are talking about. Always introduce acronyms and add a glossary or a guide in the document if you have a lot of them. 

  • Look for tips, like this Google guide on how to make your Google Docs or Slides more accessible.

 

Tips.

  • Use left alignment for your text. 

  • Use portrait format for your documents. Landscape formats can make lines very long and difficult to read but tables in landscape formats can work well.

  • Keep your text large enough to read, 11pt is a good minimum. 

  • Create a clear structure and use headings through the text. 

  • Any image added into the document should have a description available beneath it (or alt text provided if the functionality allows). 

  • Text should be available in one column only; two columns can confuse screen readers.

  • Avoiding jargon and over-complicated text and following a consistent style help improve readability for all users.


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