To get started right away, just select any placeholder text (such as this) and start typing to replace it with your own text. Want to make your own accessible brochure template? You got it! Check out the tip text on the following pages! There are fold guide lines on the first page of this brochure. To find and remove them, just double click in the header and select the guide lines. Type a caption for your photo	Company Name Street Address City, ST ZIP Code Recipient Name Address City, ST ZIP Code	Type a caption for your photo Brochure Title Subtitle
Think a document that looks this good has to be difficult to format? Think again! We’ve created styles that let you match the formatting in this brochure with just a click. On the Home tab of the ribbon, check out the Styles gallery. Type a caption for your photo	Don’t forget to include some specifics about what you offer, and how you differ from the competition. You could include a bulleted list of products, services, or major benefits of working with your company. Or just summarize your finer points in a few concise paragraphs. We know you could go on for hours about how great your business is. (And we don’t blame you—you’re amazing!) Just remember that this is marketing—if you want to grab their attention, keep it brief, friendly, and readable.	Type a caption for your photo “Don’t be shy! Show them how fabulous you are! This is a great spot for a glowing testimonial.”

Make Accessible Word Templates

Learn the basics for how to create an accessible Brochure template using this template as an example.

Contents

Tips for making an Accessible Brochure template	4

Styling	4

Photos and Graphics	4

Content Controls	5

Alternative Text	5

Learn More	5

Tips for making an Accessible Brochure template

Styling

The foundation for an accessible template starts with applying and adjusting some basic features. These features include the following: creating a meaningful filename, using themes, setting a larger default font size, passing color contrast tests, using styles, and passing accessibility checker.

Filename: When saving a template, give the template a meaningful filename, e.g. "Brochure".

Themes: Select or configure a theme color scheme then use those colors throughout the template. Avoid custom colors because custom colors won't change if a new theme is selected. Notice how the fonts and colors change when a new theme is selected in Design > Themes.

Font size: Accessible templates use 11pt minimum font size. If your template doesn't have this minimum set by default, then modify the Default style font to set it in the Styles pane > Manage Styles > Set Defaults. You will also need to modify other styles as well because all styles in the template need to be 11pts or larger.

Color Contrast: When working with colors whether it's a fill or a font color, the contrast between the foreground and background must meet the following criteria:

Guideline is a ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text, and 3:1 for large text (>= 18 pt font size).

You can download a "colour contrast analyzer" from the web.

Styles: Use styles for formatting to automatically update content when new themes are selected. Not only will styles change when a new theme is selected, it will also make it easier to modify a style and have text update automatically throughout the document wherever the style was applied.

Check Accessibility: Accessibility checker will catch many issues. The check should run without any errors. You can find the checker at File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility

Photos and Graphics

Make sure that all your objects, photos, and graphics are inline with text unless they’re supposed to go behind the text:

To make objects, photos, and graphics inline with text, just right click and select More Layout Options > Text Wrapping, then choose In Line With Text.

If you have an object, photo, or graphics that have to go behind the text, put it into the header layer so it doesn’t confuse users who are blind or who have low vision. To do this, go to Insert > Header > Edit Header, paste your object, then right click and select More Layout Options > Text Wrapping and choose Behind Text.

Some people can’t see certain colors, so text and tables need to pass a test that measures these color differences. You can download a color contrast analyzer from the web. To test using this tool, just select the color foreground and background you need and see if it passes!

Content Controls

Users who are blind or who have low vision have screen readers that read out all the content for them. That’s why it’s important to put all your text into content controls with settings that are correct for screen readers.

To find out more about how to use content controls, please visit the Microsoft site for content controls.

If you’re already comfortable with controls and just need to know the Accessibility settings for them, here you go:

Controls need to have a Title and Tags added in the control properties and they need to end in a colon with no space, as you can see in the examples in this template.

Only rich text content controls are allowed. For example, form controls like date pickers are not accessible.

Alternative Text

All your pictures and tables need appropriate descriptive alternative text (known as “alt text”) that don’t use the words “photo” or “graphic”. For example, the alt text for the first photo in this template says “Green grass”.

To set your alt text on a photo or object, right-click on it and select Format Shape > Layout and Properties > Alt Text. There are 2 fields for alt text, Title and Description, and different screen readers read them differently.

To set alt text for a table, select the table and right-click it, then go to Table Properties > Alt Text.

Learn More

More questions about Accessibility? Click here to visit the Word Accessibility support page.