Guide to Accessibility in Business Documents

This book will cover accessibility principles as they relate to business or professional writing. Designed to assist readers in moving from a remediation-focused practice of accessibility to a proactive stance, this text will assist readers in developing the core literacy necessary to write and evaluate professional documents to incorporate accessibility best practices. In this text, readers will learn core concepts and vocabulary about accessibility, how disability affects documentation, and how to approach documentation from five key categories: language, fonts, layout, color and visuals, and interactivity. 

Ensuring business documentation is accessible to all readers is an increasingly relevant skill set for business professionals. With 1 in 4 individuals in the US estimated to be disabled, creating accessible documentation is not only required by several US and Canadian laws, but also represents an opportunity to capture an increased market share. Additionally, accessibility best practices benefit both disabled populations and general users, ensuring documentation is clearer, more readable, and more usable by everyone. However, current information around accessibility generally focuses exclusively on either web-based practices or PDF remediation, which both fail to provide the core knowledge necessary to integrate accessibility into documentation from the start. This text is unique in approaching accessibility as a core literacy, or set of knowledge and practices, that can be learned and applied to all type of documentation. Readers of this text will develop an understanding of how accessibility best practices impact documentation decisions, allowing them to approach documentation with accessibility in mind.