How to Create Accessible Documents
Shawn Phillips 
June 24rd, 2025
In an online era where consumers have more options than ever before, creating accessible documents and providing content that’s understandable for users of all abilities is a crucial part of doing business. An organization’s responsibility for accessibility goes beyond the website and extends to customer communications of all kinds.
Understanding how to make documents more accessible is especially important as countries around the world add new rules and laws. Regulations such as the European Accessibility Act (EAA), the EU’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Section 508 all give businesses concrete accessible documents guidelines. In this article we’ll explore some ways to implement them, pulling from our recent MHC webinar “Making All Your Digital Communications Accessible.”
Table of Contents
- What is Document Accessibility and Why Does It Matter?
- What is the Scope of the European Accessibility Act (EAA)?
- What is the Scope of Section 508 (USA)?
- What is the Scope of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)?
- Types of Documents and Their Accessibility Challenges
- Why Pre-Composition Accessibility Is the Top Strategy for Enterprise Document Generation
- Other Accessibility Strategies: Post-Composition and Dynamic Remediation
- Common Accessible Document Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
- How to Create Accessible Documents: Best Practices for Implementation
- Create Accessible Documents with MHC
What is Document Accessibility and Why Does It Matter?
An accessible document is defined as one that can be read and understood the same way by people of all abilities. That includes equal access for people with visual, auditory, cognitive, motor, and speech disabilities, among others. As Tobias Van der Velde notes in our recent webinar, “accessibility in a broader sense means that every person, regardless of age or physical limitation, has access to service goods or buildings, and in a digital sense, even to information. It means a fair and equitable participation in society.”
Why are accessible documents important to an organization’s daily operations? Without them, your business is essentially telling people of different abilities that they don’t matter. In the European Union, home to some of the world’s strongest accessibility regulations, nearly 27% of citizens identify as having some kind of disability. That represents more than €720 billion in spending power. There are legal and financial penalties at risk for noncompliant businesses as well. That’s an especially important concern as the June 28, 2025 deadline for EAA compliance approaches.
What is the Scope of the European Accessibility Act (EAA)?
Making documents accessible in compliance with new EAA guidelines is a looming concern for businesses. Any organization that does business with people in the EU, has more than 10 employees, and has an annual revenue of 2 million Euros or more needs to be compliant with EAA guidelines. That includes businesses based in the U.S., U.K, and other non EU members.
The EAA requires all customer-facing digital communications to be compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. That includes emails, PDFs, portals, invoices, statements, contracts and other documents. Compliance with EN 301 549 (EU standards for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accessibility) is also required. Meeting thresholds set by PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility) guidelines is not required under EAA, but is strongly recommended.
What is the Scope of Section 508 (USA)?
Section 508 in the United States makes it mandatory for U.S. federal agencies and contractors to create digital assets that align closely with WCAG guidelines. Section 508 also sets standards for PDF/UA, placing specific requirements on PDF documents in customer communications.
While Section 508 only applies specifically to federal agencies and their contractors, it also has a strong impact on highly regulated industries such as healthcare, insurance, and financial services. CCM leaders are advised to keep a close watch on Section 508 and PDF/UA requirements, as many federal regulations are currently being modified.
What is the Scope of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)?
The EU’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to create international standards for digital content. Under WCAG, your website and apps must deliver content that meets the POUR standard: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust enough to support assistive technologies for users of all abilities. The latest updates to WCAG 2.2 set new standards for improved navigation and form inputs, with more updates likely to come in the near future.
Types of Documents and Their Accessibility Challenges
When considering how to make documents accessible, it often helps to separate your communications into two distinct categories. Most of the documents your organization produces can likely be grouped as either static or transactional. It is essential to follow accessible documents best practices for both kinds of documents to ensure full compliance.
What are static documents?
Static documents include communications that rarely require updating or personalization. These documents often live on an organization’s website and have a longer lifespan than other accessible documents. Examples include terms and conditions, annual reports, and marketing or informational brochures.
What are transactional documents?
Transactional documents make up 95% of most organizations’ document volume. These documents often involve more customization and personalization and may be more frequently updated. Common transactional document examples include invoices, contracts, and customer statements.
Why Pre-Composition Accessibility Is the Top Strategy for Enterprise Document Generation
Pre-composition accessibility is a strategy for building accessible digital documents even before content generation. This is an especially useful approach for organizations dealing with high volumes of personalized, similarly composed documents such as statements and invoices.
Key benefits of pre-composition accessibility include:
- Automatic compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA, PDF/UA, and other regulations
- Accessibility standards applied consistently regardless of the scale of your communications
- Reduced risks of compliance violations and lowered operational costs
- Improved customer experience (CX) from their first interaction with your business
By applying pre-compositions accessibility standards, your business can take a proactive approach to compliance while also creating a smoother, more engaging experience for users of all abilities.
Other Accessibility Strategies: Post-Composition and Dynamic Remediation
There will likely also be some communications and situations in which it makes more sense to address accessibility post-composition. For example, making updates to legacy documents and other existing communications often requires batch processing. Post-composition remediation is the sensible approach in those situations.
Dynamic remediation can be thought of as more of an “on-call” approach. This involves adjusting key documents for accessibility on a case-by-case basis. In recent years, dynamic delivery has been simplified by AI tools that can automatically add tags, assess readability, and validate compliance.
Common Accessible Document Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Even well-intentioned accessibility efforts sometimes fall short of their targets. These common mistakes can create accessibility gaps that can cause deeper problems if they are left unaddressed.
Over-focusing on websites
Your website may be the most obvious customer touchpoint in need of accessibility remediation, but it’s far from the only one. EAA guidelines specify that communications via apps, online platforms, and other forms of documents also need to meet POUR standards.
Concentration on visual impairments
Knowing how to make documents accessible for visually impaired users is extremely important, but it isn’t the only area you need to consider. Accessibility measures need to provide equal access for users with cognitive, auditory, speech, and motor disabilities as well.
Relying on technical compliance
Obeying the letter of the law may be enough to avoid fines and compliance violations, but that isn’t enough to make your communications accessible. As Tobias Van der Velde notes, “If you have a technically PDF/UA compliant document, but your reading order is completely mixed up, your tools won’t notice. But the assistive technology that is being used by your customer will. They will not be able to make any sense of the document.”
Not involving users with disabilities in testing
Again, it isn’t enough to make your communications compliant. They also need to be usable. The best way to ensure that is by having your system tested by users experiencing the accessibility issues you are attempting to remediate. Without that testing, you run a high risk of missing issues that may not be evident to users without those disabilities.
Ignoring your full ecosystem
Your business likely uses a number of document-producing systems, some more regularly than others. Instituting accessibility solutions that cover all of your document production tools at the same time is crucial for avoiding gaps in compliance and usability.
How to Create Accessible Documents: Best Practices for Implementation
Different types of documents require different approaches to accessibility. Understanding how to make a PDF document accessible isn’t the same thing as knowing how to make a Word document accessible. Let’s run through some best practices for getting your accessibility where it needs to be.
1. Conduct a document inventory
Take stock of and record all documents your business produces, including static documents, transactional documents, and marketing communications. Assess the accessibility of both ongoing and existing communications and update legacy documents as needed.
2. Prioritize high-impact and high-volume communications
While universal accessibility is a good ultimate goal, it’s always wise to put your most impactful and visible issues first. One example of a high-impact situation would be a lack of closed captions, making your video content inaccessible to users with hearing impairments. Accessibility issues in high-volume documents such as invoices or statements also need to be addressed with high priority.
3. Choose a strategy that suits your company
Every business has distinct goals and needs for document accessibility. Assess whether a pre-composition accessibility, post-composition accessibility, or dynamic delivery strategy is the best fit for keeping your business in compliance.
4. Provide accessibility training
Accessibility standards are constantly evolving to reflect the latest research and technology. Instituting regular accessibility training for every team member involved in document creation and distribution keeps your organization up to date and your employees more engaged with accessibility efforts.
5. Create monitoring and validation workflows
Understand that accessibility is not a one-time project. Maintaining document accessibility standards requires consistent monitoring and reliable document validation workflows that can be adjusted as compliance requirements evolve.
6. Include users with disabilities in testing
Accessibility is not a one-size-fits-all concept. It’s possible for a business to be technically compliant while still providing a substandard experience for users with disabilities. Accessibility testing should always include input from the users who will be most impacted, and who can point out areas for improvement that users without disabilities may not recognize.
“Create Accessible Documents with MHC
For too many years, providing accessible online documents and communications was an afterthought for too many businesses. Companies have slowly been improving their approaches to accessible documents for visually impaired and hearing impaired users for a long while, but many other disabilities remained overlooked. Now modern compliance regulations are finally pushing organizations to adopt accessible standards for all users.
Beyond regulatory compliance, following accessibility best practices helps to improve overall customer experience and encourages more useful and engaging content across the board. To learn more about the many ways MHC software solutions can help your business create a more compliant and accessible user experience, visit our Creating Accessible Documents page. Ready for a first-hand look at what our automated accessibility tools can do for your organization?
Contact us to schedule a free demo. Our in-house experts will tailor a solution based on your organization’s specific needs and goals.
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Shawn Phillips
Shawn brings over 25 years of tech and customer experience expertise to his role as Product Manager for MHC NorthStar CCM. He is driven by a simple philosophy: great technology should make everyone’s day better—customers and employees alike. His practical, hands-on approach helps companies streamline how they talk to their clients, making every message count. Before joining MHC, Shawn was employed at Heart of the Customer, where he worked with Fortune 100 companies to improve how they connect with customers—everything from reducing pain points to enhancing key moments in the customer journey.
