Accesible Design Checklist: Overview

This post provides an overview checklist for some digital composition accessibility requirements. This is meant to serve as a starting place, rather than a complete list or expert regulations. Accessibility should be considered throughout all parts of the design process, and designing accessible compositions benefits all people, not just those with disabilities. This post is the first part of the Accessible Design Checklist series:

• Overview
• Text and Content
• Multimedia

Overall Design Accessibility

When looking at the design, composers should consider the overall structure and content.

Design Format
For digital distribution, web pages with HTML or CSS are the most accessible. Other accessible options (when following the design checklist) are Word or Google Docs. PDFs are only accessible if they have been remediated correctly.

Display
Information is set to be perceivable in either landscape or portrait modes. The design should not require users to scroll in both up/down and left/right. The design can be zoomed in without losing meaning. The design should be able to be navigated and interacted with using a keyboard alone.

Headings
Headings use tagged heading structures with hierarchies. The headings do not skip levels. Use the Level 1 Heading designation only once per design.

Languages
The design’s language is set to the primary language of the document. Any words or phrases in additional languages are set for those words as a different language.

Navigation
The design allows for more than one way to find relevant pages within a set of pages. The design also provides content overviews with links so that users may bypass content.

Order
The design provides an easily understandable order to the content. When using lists, use bullet points and order the information logically, such as alphabetically or by data size.

Title
The design has a specific title. This title is displayed in the document name or the tab of a website.

References and Resources for Accessible Design

• Level Access’ Must-Have Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Checklist 
• Michigan State University’s Create Accessible Content
• University of Washington’s Accessibility Checklist
• Web Accessibility in Mind’s WCAG 2 Checklist
• Web Accessibility Initiative’s Design and Develop Overview

Continue to read more about the checklist in the next part of the series, Accessible Design Checklist: Text and Content.

Accessible Design Checklist: Overview © 2024 by Bethany Meadows is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.