Creating Accessible Documents

Per University web policy, online documents such as PDFs must meet web accessibility standards.

Tip: Before posting a document to the UMB website, consider whether it needs to be a document at all, or if, instead, you can turn that content into a web page using content types. Web pages often provide a more seamless, easy viewing experience than a downloadable document, and UMB's web templates incorporate many built-in accessibility features.

Instructions for PDFs

PDFs are one of the most commonly used document formats on UMB websites.

When creating a PDF using an application like Word or Indesign, make use of the accessibility features built into those applications:

• Create Accessible PDFs with Microsoft Applications (Word, etc.)
• Create Accessible PDFs with Indesign

Run a full check on every PDF you intend to post to the website using a tool like Equidox or Acrobat Pro.

Please be aware that there are some issues an automatic checker cannot detect. For example, the checker will find whether a PDF is tagged, but it cannot always determine whether the tags are properly applied.

Other Document Types

Though less commonly used than PDFs, the accessibility requirements also apply to Word documents, Powerpoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets.