Use these resources to gain a better understanding of why accessibility is important, how to take an inclusive approach to content and how to test for accessibility.

Inclusive design

• GAAD2020 department webstream (staff only) - videos produced by the department for Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2020; a range of accessibility help topics are covered including emails, videos and personalisation of technology.
• Microsoft Inclusive Design Toolkit - check your approach to content accessibility by learning about inclusive design.
  
• Centre for Inclusive Design: The Inspiration Series - a curated list of resources recommended by the Centre for Inclusive Design to further the conversation around inclusive content
• Inclusive Design Research Centre - an international community of inclusive designers, developers and advocates.
• UK Home Office Designing for Accessibility posters (PDF 519.83KB) - posters to print out and remind you how to make your content accessible for different access needs.

Testing accessibility

Colour contrast

• Colour Contrast Analyser - download tool to check legibility and contrast.
• Snook.ca - colour contrast checker.
• Colorsafe.co - colour picker and checker.

Websites

• WAVE browser plugin tool for Chrome shows ARIA errors and other accessibility errors.
• Functional Accessibility Evaluator - evaluate websites against WCAG.
• Vision Australia Web Accessibility Toolbar - download toolbar to evaluate websites against WCAG.
• Wuhcag checklist - check website accessibility without the WCAG jargon.

Assistive technology

People with accessibility needs may use assistive technology to access content. Testing your content with these technologies is the most accurate way of making sure it's accessible.

Screen readers

• NVDA - free screen reader available for download (request IT support to install).

Device personalisation

• Android accessibility features
• Apple accessibility features
• Windows accessibility features

Use these resources to help optimise your content in Microsoft Office, Google Docs, websites or any text publishing platform.

Web

• W3C Tips on writing for web accessibility - comprehensive guide to web writing accessibility
• Inclusive language and terms - guide from the Digital Transformation Agency.

Microsoft Office

• Creating accessible Word documents - step-by-step text instructions
• Creating accessible Word documents - 7-part video tutorial
• Creating accessible PowerPoint presentations - step-by-step text instructions
• Creating accessible PowerPoint presentations - 5-part video tutorial
• Creating accessible emails in Outlook- step-by-step text instructions
• Creating accessible emails in Outlook - 3-part video tutorial
• Document accessibility toolbar - a free download that adds accessibility features to your Microsoft Office ribbon
  
• Writing effective alt text for rich media.

Google docs

• Make your Google content accessible.

4Syllables accessibility resources

• Making content findable
• Designing scannable content
• Writing in a readable style
• Creating accessible content
• Page titles
• Designing structure
• Writing headings
• Writing lists
• Writing paragraphs
• Using tables.

Use these resources to optimise PDFs for accessibility.

Adobe

• Create and verify PDF accessibility - how to create accessible PDFs
• Acrobat Pro DC Accessible Forms and Interactive Documents - how to optimise forms and interactive documents for accessibility.

W3C

• Performing OCR on a scanned PDF - using the optical character recognition tool in Acrobat to turn a scanned document into actual text.

Use these resources to optimise data for accessibility.

• Creating accessible Excel workbooks - what to look out for in Excel and how to optimise workbooks for accessibility
• Accessible Math - resources and tools to make maths accessible
• Effective Practices for Description of Science Content within Digital Talking Books - suggestions for describing flow charts and tables.

Use these resources for making rich and multimedia content like audio and video accessible.

Images and graphics

• Colorsafe.co - a tool to help choose accessible colours and fonts.
• Diagrammar content model - a framework for making images and graphics accessible.
• WebAIM Alternative Text - how to correctly use alternative text.
• Image guidelines on our website.
• Writing effective alt text - tips for using alternative text for rich media in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel).

Video

• Video guidelines on our website
• Creating accessible videos on our website
• Creating accessible videos - captions (staff only) - video series
• Creating accessible videos - overlay (staff only) - video series
• Creating accessible videos - audio descriptions (staff only) - video series
• Amara editor - free tool for video captioning, subtitles and translation
• DIYCaptions - YouTube automatic captions editor
• Synchrimedia MovieCaptioner - captioning software for PC/Mac desktop.
• WebAIM Captions, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions - how to create videos accessibly.

Within the department

• Yammer
• Accessibility training for department staff

Outside the department

Some companies offer content accessibility audits and can re-create content to comply with accessibility standards. This can be helpful if you have a lot of content to make accessible in a short period of time, however it won?t help build capacity and skills across your team.

Some trusted suppliers include:

• All Equal - offers accessible content creation, testing and remediation (web, video and documents), as well professional learning
• Me2 Accessibility - offers website testing, training and document remediation
• Accessibility Oz - can provide a range of services including website testing and document remediation
• Vision Australia - offer website testing and document remediation.
• Media Access - offer an accessible document service, as well as auditing and testing.

Audit

If you haven't done a recent content audit, evaluate your content and remove out-of-date web pages and documents. If it's not useful, current or popular, you may be able to unpublish or delete it. You should also review our checklist for accessible content to ensure your content meets the requirements.

Prioritise

Sort your remaining content by date to prioritise what needs to be made accessible first.

1. Any new web content or documents need to be accessible. No exceptions.
2. Prioritise legacy content created after 31 December 2014 based on:
   1. importance (legal or business requirement) - does it align with directorate/unit priorities or some other obligation to have the content?
   2. popularity - use analytics to find out page views/file downloads. If it's not being used, consider unpublishing or deleting the page/document.
3. Prioritise legacy content created before 31 December 2014 based on:
   1. importance
   2. popularity.

3. Plan

Create a timeline and assign the people responsible for making your content accessible within 6 to 12 months, depending on how much you have. Use this Google sheets accessibility planner template to start planning.

1. Fill it out with your existing content (copy URLs from your content audit if you have done one).
2. Give scores based on importance and popularity and give a priority number.
3. Arrange in order of the priority column.
4. Assign a date in the next 6 months to make accessible.
5. Assign a person responsible.
6. Document the date completed.

4. Create with accessibility in mind

• Use our accessibility format picker (table) to help you decide on the best format for your content. Remember, a web page is best. Unless it really needs to be a Word doc or PDF for print or editing purposes, always make it a web page.
• Print these Designing for accessibility posters (PDF 519.83 KB) to remind you and your team how to create content accessibly for different needs.

5. Health checks

Do regular audits of your content to pick up any accessibility errors.