Document accessibility strategy

Identify environment

Goal: Discover content you have, the current state, and any opportunities you can build on.

Tasks

A task or process Pope Tech does for you or supports is marked with **.

• Inventory documents**
• Find who creates documents. This could be individuals or departments.
• Identify any content policies concerning document content that already exist.
• Learn about the current process or training for creating document content.
• Find potential opportunities to build on.

Potential opportunities

Here are examples of opportunities you might find:

• Pockets of teams that create the majority of document content.
• Outdated documents that are no longer needed.
• Documents that should be HTML web pages.
• Documents or document types that account for most of the views.
• Departments or teams that are willing or excited about the work.
• Processes or people that are already doing things well.

Put processes in place

Goal: Build a digital accessibility strategy that maintains your content’s accessibility.

Tasks

A task or process Pope Tech does for you or supports is marked with **.

• Leadership buy-in
  • Meet with leadership to inform them of the current state, needs, goals, and get support for policies or resources (if needed).
  • Follow up with leadership regularly.
• New process for maintaining accessibility
  • Define and publish new organizational policies (if needed).
  • Define the new process (that includes accessibility checks) for creating accessible documents.
  • Create a plan to communicate the new process/policy and track adoption. This could include email campaigns, training, videos, incentives, and more.
  • Create a training plan for those who work with documents. Topics should include what makes them accessible and how to use Adobe Acrobat, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint to make them accessible.
    • Train people in the content management system if needed, so they create webpages instead of PDFs when needed.
• Training and communication
  • Make a list of people you’ll communicate with about policies, processes, training, etc. (This could include people you have already identified, stakeholders, and other supporting groups).
  • Carry out the communication plan.
  • Host any necessary trainings or check in with people to make sure they’ve completed training.**
  • Track adoption.
  • Document expectations, processes, and training requirements for new hires and share with departments or teams.
• Start regular document testing
  • Create a process for when there are inaccessible documents going forward. How will they be handled?
  • Set up automatic accessibility testing for document content to monitor new documents.**

Potential opportunities

• Central teams that can support accessible document work.
• Creating a policy that dictates the standard and what happens if it isn’t met can keep everyone accountable.
• Sharing wins and progress publicly could motivate different teams to be a part of the effort.
• Start small with groups who want to be part of it. Share their wins and make changes for a larger rollout.

Fix existing issues

Goal: Test existing content and fix accessibility issues.

Tasks

A task or process Pope Tech does for you or supports is marked with **.

• Determine if you’ll use 3rd party vendors for remediation.
• Determine in-scope existing content.**
• Test in-scope content and find opportunities.**
• Determine who is responsible for testing and updating existing document content.
• Document work in the central project management system that also has non-accessibility-related tasks (if relevant). Or, create a project tracker.**
• Set goals, starting with easy wins and opportunities.
• Create a plan for escalating potential blocks and barriers.
• Schedule regular check-ins with all applicable stakeholders and contributors.

Potential opportunities

• Reduce the scope by removing archived documents from the scope of work.
• Make PDFs HTML webpages instead. This is better for accessibility and easier to maintain.