Documents & Emails

Anyone who creates or distributes documents and/or email content as part of their work at U-M.

Start with Basics: Documents

Select the document training options for the formats you typically work with. If you work with multiple formats, start with the document accessibility training module as it introduces foundational concepts that come up again in the other educational resources.

• Document Accessibility Training (U-M Canvas Course | Estimated time to complete: 20–30 minutes)
• PDF Accessibility Training (U-M Canvas Course | Estimated time to complete: 30–45 minutes)
  • Note: PDFs should be avoided where possible! Review the PDF Decision Tree and U-M Flint's Rethinking PDFs pages to learn more.
• Presentations Training (U-M Canvas Course)
  • Focus on pages 1.3 and 1.4 (Estimated time to complete: 10–15 minutes)
• Spreadsheet Accessibility Training (U-M Canvas Course | Estimated time to complete: 10–15 minutes)
• Math Accessibility (U-M Resource | Estimated time: 5 minutes to review page, added time to engage linked resources)
• Music Notation Accessibility (U-M Resource | Estimated time to complete: 10 minutes to review pages, added time to engage linked resources)

Start with Basics: Emails

Everyone who sends emails should complete email accessibility training. This is especially important for individuals who send emails on behalf of a U-M unit, program, course, or service.

• Email Accessibility Tips & Practices (U-M Resource | 6-minute video)
• Email Accessibility Training (U-M Canvas Course)
  • Everyone should complete "Simple Messages" & "Attachments" modules (Estimated time to complete: 10–20 minutes)
  • Individuals sending highly-designed emails from tools like MailChimp, Constant Contact, EMMA, etc. should also complete the "Advanced Design" module (Estimated time to complete: 5–10 minutes)

Learn about accessibility features and limitations in U-M email clients:

• Gmail Accessibility
• Outlook Email Accessibility

• Individuals leading digital accessibility efforts for units or teams
• Individuals who create and/or distribute documents, including instructors creating and sharing documents for courses
• Individuals who create and send newsletters or mass emails
• Web content managers

Use the document accessibility inventory spreadsheet (or create your own system) to assist with the review process.

Step 1: Inventory your documents

First, gather the document titles and locations. Methods for identifying documents may include:

• For website content, reference the digital asset management system for a list of uploaded documents.
• For course content, check content folders (e.g., "Files" in Canvas) for uploaded documents.
• For content stored in shared cloud drives, use the advanced search feature to locate documents.

Note: A limitation of the website and course content methods is they often do not provide a way to sort which documents are actively linked on published pages. In addition, these folders will not reflect documents that are linked in your content but hosted on external websites or folders. Manually reviewing each published page for links to uploaded and linked external documents will most likely be necessary.

Next, determine what usage data is available for each document, which can help determine whether the document might qualify for archiving under Title II of the ADA. Usage data might include the version number, downloads, views, or date last accessed. Before collecting additional information about each document, decide if any will be archived. Eligible, properly archived files do not require proactive remediation.

Finally, for documents which are not being archived, note the following details: file type, page length or file size, whether you have access to the source file, whether the document contains sensitive data, and whether the document is under copyright. 

Step 2: Assess use

For each document that is not being archived, does it meet any of the following criteria? If so, mark “high priority” for remediation.

• Located on a main webpage, and/or
• Frequently utilized, viewed, or downloaded, and/or
• Required to perform well in a course, and/or
• Required to access a program, service, or benefit at the university, and/or
• Communicates critical information (e.g., unit policies, application deadlines, evaluation results, etc.), and/or
• Serves as a template for creating other documents, and/or
• Has been reported for accessibility issues.

Step 3: Assess accessibility

Use an automated accessibility checker (please refer to the Remediate section below to learn more about tools) to scan your documents for potential accessibility issues. If a document has accessibility issues flagged by a checker or you have received an accessibility complaint about a document, it should also be marked "high priority" for remediation. If you know a document is already accessible, mark it "accessible".

Step 4: Prioritize documents for remediation

Documents that don’t require remediation:

• Documents that are (or will be) archived or removed.
• Documents that are already known to be accessible.

For documents that require remediation, prioritization recommendations are as follows:

• High priority: Documents that are marked "high priority" for remediation in the steps above. You will still have to decide what order you will address all of the high priority items. Consider the following:
  • Start with documents where you have access to the original, editable file and which are in formats that are easier to remediate with available tools (i.e., Microsoft Office documents remediated with the built-in accessibility checker, Google suite documents remediated with Grackle).
  • Next, prioritize remediating templates that you regularly use to create new documents.
  • Lastly, work on PDFs for which you don't have access to the source file. These will be the most difficult to remediate and often have other factors impacting the changes that can be made, such as copyright.
• Lower priority: All remaining documents.

Which emails need review

Emails distributed to groups of people to inform them about U-M products or services (e.g., newsletters, update emails, event notices) are required to be accessible. Templates associated with these emails should be a high priority for remediation. Inaccessible group emails sent prior to the compliance date that are published on a website or stored online for reference purposes should be clearly archived according to Title II guidance. Emails distributed on the compliance date and onward will need to be digitally accessible.

One-time emails that are sent to individuals or small groups are generally lower risk and can be classified as lower priority, except in cases where a recipient has known accessibility needs. When a recipient requires an adjustment to make an email accessible, make the adjustment wherever possible. Examples include enlarging text for a colleague with low vision or breaking messages up into short bullet points for a student who has difficulty processing text. 

Do your best to incorporate accessibility best practices into all your emails. You won’t always know if a recipient has an accessibility need and it’s easier to make accessibility a natural part of your email authoring workflow when you apply best practices consistently.

Use the email template inventory spreadsheet (or create your own system) to document each of the email templates you/your unit manage and their location. 

Step 1: Inventory email templates

Note the template names and which are currently in use. Any templates that are no longer utilized should be deleted or archived to prevent accidental use of inaccessible templates in the future.

Step 2: Assess distribution and accessibility

For all actively used templates, document the following information:

• Is the email type distributed to 50 or more recipients?
  • If yes, mark "high priority" for remediation in your inventory.
• Is the email type sent to students or external recipients (individuals not employed by or enrolled at U-M as students)?
  • If yes, mark "high priority" for remediation in your inventory.
• Is the email template accessible?
  • Use the email template accessibility checklist to evaluate. Update the accessibility status in your inventory.

Step 3: Prioritize for remediation

The following method for prioritizing remediation work is recommended:

• Not applicable: Templates that are archived or are already accessible.
• High priority: Templates that are marked "high priority" for remediation in Step 2. Start with templates that reach the highest number of recipients.
• Lower priority: All remaining templates.

Units and teams will need to determine who is responsible for remediating existing documents and email templates. Original documents created by the unit and available in Microsoft Office, Google Suite, or LaTeX formats will be easier to remediate by internal U-M employees. Documents formatted as PDFs will be much harder to remediate, especially in cases where the source file is unavailable, and units may consider outsourcing this work to a professional remediation supplier.

If U-M employees are doing remediation consider:

• Selecting employees who are familiar with the language(s) within the files (each language should be properly labeled).
• Getting support from student employees.

Document Standards

To understand applicable accessibility standards for documents, review document accessibility best practices for the particular formats you need to remediate. For word processor formats (Word, Google Docs), you may also reference this accessible document checklist for key criteria. Reference the Math Accessibility and Music Notation Accessibility webpages to learn more about format options and emerging standards in these areas.

Email Standards

Key accessibility criteria for emails are outlined in the email template accessibility checklist.

Document Remediation Workflow

For documents where you own or have permission to edit the source file:

• Start by ensuring you have machine-readable text present in your document. If you are working with an image of a document, you will need to run OCR to extract text before doing anything else.
• Correct visual styling issues (e.g., color contrast, font legibility, sufficient white space between elements).
• Add or correct document structure using proper application functions (i.e., heading levels, lists with correct nesting, simple tables with header rows).
• Review images to ensure alt text descriptions are present and accurate.
• Review links (URLs, bookmarks, linked table of contents, footnotes and endnotes) to ensure they function as intended and that in-text links are styled distinctly compared to surrounding text and associated with meaningful and unique text wherever possible.
• Confirm logical reading order (especially for PDFs and slide decks).
• Add any required document metadata (e.g., document title, language) and adjust any required display settings (common for PDFs).
• Run compatible accessibility checkers and correct any issues found.
• Mark the remediated version as “accessible”. Then archive the source file and replace it with the remediated version.

These checklists helpfully break down the steps for remediating different document formats:

• Accessible Document Checklist (With linked resources for Google Docs and Microsoft Word)
• Accessible Spreadsheet Checklist (With linked resources for Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel)
• Accessible PowerPoint Presentation Checklist
• Accessible Google Slides Presentation Checklist

Recommendation: Flag challenging content that will require more intensive corrections (e.g., complex tables that need to be broken into simple tables or have long alt text descriptions developed, infographics that require linking to a long alt text description, correcting OCR errors for handwritten text, etc.). You may wish to deal with these later in the workflow.

For documents you don't own or don't have permission to edit the source file:

Search for an alternative, more accessible format that you can either substitute for the current version you distribute or link to in addition to the current version you distribute. It should be clear to users which version is inaccessible and which is digitally accessible. For example, beside the inaccessible download link you could write: "(For print purposes only)". Beside the alternative format download link you could write: "(Digitally accessible version)".

In some cases, you may need to reach out to authors, publishers, or distributors (such as a library) to see if an accessible version is available or can be provided.

Email Remediation Workflow

For each email template under review, work through the email template accessibility checklist. Note details when you change something that is a consistent part of branded email content (e.g., colors, fonts, interactive elements) so that you can make adjustments consistently and maintain a unified look and feel to communications campaigns.

Accessibility Scanning Tools & Checklists

Emails:

• Email Template Accessibility Checklist

• Accessible-Email.org (scan email campaigns)

• Microsoft Outlook Accessibility Checker

• No tools currently available to scan Gmail emails

EPUBs:

• EPUB-Checker

HTML files:

• WAVE by WebAIM

PDFs: 

• Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Check [beginner]

• PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC) [Windows only - advanced]: Can check against WCAG and PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility) standards. Review the PAC Quickstart Guide and get guidance on repairing some advanced errors and warnings from the Tagged PDF Help Center. Compliance with PDF/UA is not necessary, but can offer enhanced accessibility for more complex types of PDF content, such as: 

  • PDF forms,

  • Documents with URLs not linked to descriptive text, and

  • Documents with images of text.

Slide Presentations:

• Accessible Google Slides Presentation Checklist

• Accessible PowerPoint Presentation Checklist

• Grackle for Google Slides

• Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Checker

Spreadsheets:

• Accessible Spreadsheet Checklist (for Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel)

• Grackle for Google Sheets

• Microsoft Excel Accessibility Checker

Word Processor Documents:

• Accessible Document Checklist (for Google Docs and Microsoft Word)

• Grackle for Google Docs

• Microsoft Word Accessibility Checker

The amount of time to remediate documents and email templates will vary widely depending on the format, length, and complexity of the file. PDF files typically take longer to remediate than files available in the authoring/source format. Files with a greater number of elements (e.g., tables, complex images, hyperlinks, buttons, references) will take longer to remediate than files with basic text content (e.g., some headings, body text, and a few links).

• Individuals with access to reporting dashboards (integrate into monitoring metrics)
• Content creators/managers (integrate into workflow when selecting, creating, and/or preparing to publish or distribute documents and emails)

Your inventory of documents and/or email templates should be periodically updated and reviewed to determine if further archiving or remediation is needed.

Integrate this as a step in existing review timelines for websites, applications, courses, etc. or establish a specific review timeline for documents and emails. We recommend revisiting your inventory 2–3 times per year and placing recurring reminders on your calendar or in project/task management applications you use.

If content is no longer current, consider if the file qualifies for archiving under Title II of the ADA.

Documents & Emails You Create/Own

Follow these steps to establish a sustainable, accessible authoring workflow for documents and emails you create and own:

1. Select formats which are easier to make accessible (e.g., protected word processor files, EPUB, HTML, LaTeX, etc.).
   • Remember PDFs are difficult to make accessible, so use the PDF Decision Tree to determine if this format is necessary.
2. Develop and use accessible templates.
3. Follow the best practices (described in resources in the "Learn" section above) for structure, readability, and navigation as you generate content.
4. Use accessibility checker tools to review all documents and templates.
5. Integrate a final quality control check before publishing or distribution.
   • This may include quick non-technical tests (like tabbing through interactive elements in emails), checking document outlines for good heading structure, and reviewing the content with a read aloud function or screen reader tool.

Documents You Didn't Create/Don't Own

1. Try to select and distribute documents that are available in formats which are more likely to be accessible (word processor formats, EPUB, HTML, LaTeX, etc.).
2. Check documents for key accessibility features (described in resources in the "Learn" section above) that deliver good structure, readability, and navigation for users.
3. If necessary to select and distribute an inaccessible document, plan to remediate where appropriate and consult with the Disability Equity Office regarding any questions about copyrighted content (refer to Get Help section).