Accessibility Tools for Documents
Several document programs have built-in accessibility checkers to help identify, and sometimes, resolve accessibility issues. Keep in mind, these tools only identify some barriers presented in documents.
We recommend using these tools as a part of your testing process in addition to submitting your document for a manual accessibility review.
Grackle Docs for G Suite
Grackle Docs is an add-on that extends the accessibility of Google Docs by automatically checking all aspects of your document and advising you how to make things better. An add-on is available for Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
Accessibility Checker for Microsoft Office
Several of the programs available in the Microsoft Office Suite have a built-in accessibility checker for evaluating accessibility of your documents, spreadsheets, or presentations.
Learn more about Accessibility Checker for Microsoft Office
Check Accessibility for Adobe PDF
Adobe Acrobat Pro has an option to check accessibility of your PDF documents. This tool will provide a high level overview of potential errors, but may not provide enough information to resolve the errors.
Learn more about Adobe Accessibility Checker
CommonLook PDF
If you are responsible for creating multiple documents for digital publication, we highly recommend purchasing a license for CommonLook PDF. This tool works with Adobe Acrobat Pro to identify and resolve accessibility issues within PDF documents.
Learn more about CommonLook PDF
Color Contrast Analyzer
While some accessibility checkers in documents can alert you if there are contrast errors with your text, they can’t do the same for images. For this, you can use a Color Contrast Analyzer to quickly review if your contrast ratios are accessible for all users. There are several available, but we recommend the TPGi Color Contrast Analyzer as it works best at the operating system level.
Download TPGi Color Contrast Analyzer
Third-Party Remediation
If you have documents that require remediation and you don’t have the time or tools to complete this in-house, we recommend contacting a third-party service for a remediation quote. There are several services that offer remediation but we recommend starting with CommonLook. See CommonLook Verification and Remediation to get a quote.