Open Access: Digital accessibility guidance

PDFs

For users of Bath Research Portal

Most older PDF documents may not be structured so that they are fully accessible to screen reader software.  This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2. 

However we offer portal users the option of requesting an alternative version of a particular PDF by emailing the open access mailbox.  We may be able to provide the Word version of the PDF - which is more likely to be accessible.  Alternatively, we may need to make some minor changes to the PDF or provide the document in another format.  Help and advice is also available from the Assistive Technology team via their helpline.

For users of Pure

Any new PDFs added to Pure and published via the research portal should meet accessibility standards.

Here is some basic guidance is derived from the Learning & Teaching Hub:

In our experience, there are a few main (and simple) changes which staff can make when creating documents in Word or PDF which can have a really big impact on the digital accessibility of their content:

• Provide alternative text (such as descriptive captions) for images. Note: decorative images should not have alt text.
• Create clear and consistent headings in MS Word that are easily navigated
• Include headers and captions for illustrative tables
• Make sure any PDFs that they upload are structured probably (but organising them hierarchically  using headers) and ideally created from Word documents using PDF software
• Avoid garish colours and use sufficient contrast levels between background and text
• Check your documents' accessibility by using MS Office's Accessibility checker - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/improve-accessibility-with-the-accessibility-checker
• For technical content including equations, diagrams and plots etc., please see the Writing Accessible Technical Content page.

Guidance on producing accessible documents:

NEW!  The University recently purchased SensusAccess - which allows you to convert an existing file to accessible format before uploading it to Pure or to your website:  https://www.bath.ac.uk/forms/convert-a-file-using-sensusaccess/

University of Bath Digital Accessibility guidance:  https://teachinghub.bath.ac.uk/tools-and-resources/tel/digital-accessibility-including-blackboard-ally/

Top Tips to increase the accessibility of your work:  https://www.bath.ac.uk/publications/how-to-make-your-work-accessible/attachments/accessibility-guide.pdf

Useful guidance from SCULPT - Shaping your documents and content for accessible and inclusive practice:  https://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/info/20794/sculpt_for_accessibility

Creating an Accessible Thesis (from the Open University) - https://www.open.ac.uk/library-research-support/open-access-publishing/creating-accessible-ethesis