February: Accessible Meeting Agendas and Minutes

Headings add Structure!

Headings and structure: Use headings to organize your notes by topic or date. Headings provide a visual break in the content which makes scanning and finding relevant information easier. 

For people using assistive technologies, such as a screen reader, headings allow them to navigate the content via their keyboard. Without structure, there is no easy way to navigate a document because the document is read as a single long section.

Example in Microsoft Word (Office 365)

Screenshot: Microsoft Word with Styles Menu circled in red.

Example in a Google Doc

Google Doc Styles drop down menu.

The 1-2-3 on Lists

Don't use that little asterisk * or a dash - to start your lists. Instead, use the number or un-numbered list buttons to break up text and reduce the cognitive load for the reader. 

Google Docs menu list options
Google Docs buttons for bulleted and numbered lists.

Microsoft menu list options
Microsoft PowerPoint buttons for bulleted and numbered lists.

Links

If you want to share a link, embed it into meaningful text or phrases.

Take our example below: All three items link to the same awesome introduction, but the first is easiest to read for both sighted and non-sighted users.

  1. “Watch Planted in Research!”  is better than… 
  2. “Watch this video here,” 
  3. Watch this video”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bvBBHFQHGY

HINT: You can quickly create embedded links by Selecting your text and typing  command+K (Mac) or Ctrl +K (Windows). 

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