If you would like to request document conversion services please email your request and materials to [email protected] and provide the date on which you will need them. Time required for conversion will vary depending on the complexity of the materials. We will respond to your request as soon as possible and provide an expected time-frame.

Ways to promote accessibility if creating your own materials:

• Whenever possible, please avoid using documents with these characteristics:
  • Image-based materials, highlighting marks, underlining, handwriting, background noise/pixelation, photocopied pages containing heavy shading in the margins, documents with skewed page orientation.
• Use the “styles” menu to consistently identify Headings, Footers, hyperlinks etc. in Word documents. This ensures the document reading order and structure are preserved in conversion processes.
• When authoring new visual information, include an image description as a caption if possible. For example, if you create a pie chart showing group A representing 50%, group B representing 26% and group C 24%, write this information out in text separate from the image.
• Try to avoid using colors such as red and green on documents/web sites. People who are colorblind cannot differentiate these colors. Colors in general should not be used as the only method to convey information.
• Use high contrast between text and its background when creating a presentation.
• When working in PowerPoint in particular, do not include too much data on one slide.
• Check existing resources to see if an accessible version is already available.

For more information please visit the Accessible U website.