When we talk about digital accessibility, we usually mean websites and apps. But many of the barriers that shape lives appear much earlier — in documents.
Who am I?
I’ve been promoting document accessibility since 2011, and for the past few years I’ve been doing this work as a Senior Accessibility Specialist. I’ve written Civil Service–wide training on creating accessible Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, and I regularly spend time talking about document accessibility across government and beyond.
I’ve delivered sessions for the Information Commissioner, the Parliamentary Civil Service and others. You may also have come across Accessibility Escape Rooms, something I piloted last year as a more hands‑on way to help people understand accessibility challenges in practice.
You can also catch me through the IAAP Mini Webinar Series, where a fantastic colleague, Sam Merrett, and I spend time talking about documents and why they matter.
But at the heart of all of this is my passion: document accessibility. When people talk about digital accessibility, the focus is usually on websites and apps. That’s understandable. They are often the most visible parts of digital services, and they should work for everyone.
The importance of documents
But there is another part of digital life that does not get talked about nearly as much and that is documents.
Documents are everywhere. They shape how people learn in school, apply for jobs, understand policies, and take part in work and everyday life. For many people, documents are not extra or optional. They are the main way information is shared.
That is why document accessibility matters so much, and why it needs far more attention than it currently gets.
The Employment Gap Starts Long Before Work
One thing I have cared about for a long time is closing the employment gap between disabled and non‑disabled people. That gap does not suddenly appear when someone applies for a job. By then, a lot has already happened.
In many cases, the gap starts in education.
I have worked in many different jobs over the years, but my time volunteering as a Chair of Governors had a big impact on how I see accessibility. I chaired schools with high levels of special educational needs, and that experience made the difference between accessible and inaccessible resources easier to identify.
When learning materials are not accessible, pupils do not start from the same starting point as their classmates. They are already going to have to work harder just to get to the content, before their learning even begins.
Lack of Accessibility in Schools
When I started the Chair of Governors role at the school, it was quickly clear to me that the digital setup was part of the problem. Only the school office had internet, and accessibility was not anywhere in the thinking. Learning depended on analogue and printed systems that did not work consistently for everyone.
My priority was basic, but essential. The school needed reliable, networked internet across the whole site. This was a school of more than 600 pupils, and patchy access simply wasn’t good enough.
Once that was in place, we moved on to the next step. Every classroom was given tablets, along with new online learning resources that pupils could use on their own.
The difference was easy to see, both in school and outside it.
Helping Pupils with Long‑Term Medical Needs
The tablets turned out to be especially important for pupils with long‑term medical needs. Some of these children were unable to attend school for long periods of time.
Because learning materials were available digitally, and in formats they could use, those pupils were able to continue learning at home. They stayed connected to lessons, worked at the right level, and kept making progress.
They were moving forward, rather than simply waiting until they could return to the classroom.
That matters. It helps pupils keep confidence in their ability to learn and feel that they are still part of the school community.
Documents shape learned experiences
In education, documents carry a lot of weight. Instructions, worksheets, homework, revision materials — all of them rely on written information.
When documents are poorly laid out, badly structured, or hard to navigate, disabled pupils often spend more time trying to access the information than learning from it.
Over time, this takes its toll. Confidence drops. Independence becomes harder to achieve. It can quietly reinforce the idea that education was not designed with them in mind.
That experience does not stop when school ends.
One world two perspectives
This is not just a professional issue for me. It is a personal one. I became disabled when I lost the full use of my left arm and suffered nerve damage in both arms. My hands became unreliable.
This was the result of unlucky accident in 2011. I was given an opportunity, and I experienced these accessibility barriers first-hand. Documents that I had previously used without thinking suddenly became difficult. Tasks that should have been straightforward took more time and effort and sometimes meant asking for help where I had not needed to before.
That experience changed how I see the problem. It made it very clear how frustrating inaccessible documents can be, and how quickly they can limit independence.
It also showed me how easily these barriers are missed by people who do not face them themselves.
Documents remain less exciting that web
Unlike websites, documents often avoid scrutiny. They are emailed, shared, reused year after year, or built from old templates that no one reviews.
Yet everyday inaccessible documents block access to education, training, recruitment, workplace policies, and career development.
Often, no complaint is made. People work around the issue, rely on others, or disengage quietly. That makes document accessibility problems easy to overlook, but the impact is still there.
Seeing the gap and closing it.
Within the accessibility profession, documents are still too often treated as secondary. They are seen as technical tasks, one‑off fixes, or something to look at later if someone raises a problem.
That’s a mistake.
Documents sit at the centre of how organisations communicate, teach, support, and include people. If documents are inaccessible, much of the accessibility work around them loses its value.
Why Baking Accessibility in Matters
Too much accessibility effort still goes into remediation — fixing documents after people have already been excluded. Remediation has its place, but it should not be the default.
If something needs to be remediated, it usually means accessibility was not considered early enough.
When documents are created accessibly from the start, fewer barriers appear. People can learn, work, and take part without having to ask for adjustments or extra support.
Accessibility works best when it is built in, not bolted on later.
Your mission if you choose to accept it is:
If you work in accessibility, education, content creation, or digital services, this is the challenge.
We need to treat document accessibility as essential, not optional. We need to support the people who create documents, and make accessibility part of everyday tools, templates, and ways of working.
Most of all, we need to move away from a culture of constant remediation and towards inclusive design from the start.
Documents shape lives, from classrooms to careers. If we want to close the employment gap, we need to remove barriers early — and accessible documents are one of the most practical places to begin.
Jon O’Donnell
Senior Accessibility Specialist – United Kingdom