Creating Accessible Exam Papers

Basic formatting tips

• Text should be a minimum of single-spaced. 
• White space should separate paragraphs or sections.
• Use bold to make important points or instructions stand out.
• Avoid using features such as underlining and BLOCK CAPITALS.
• Use italics sparingly and avoid blocks of italicised text.
• Use left aligned text only, do not justify text.
• Avoid splitting a word between two lines.

Making tables accessible

There are a few easy steps you can take to make tables more accessible. Students without any difficulty with their sight can visually scan a table, and quickly make visual associations between data in the table and their appropriate row and/or column headers. For students who rely on assistive technology, it can be more difficult to intrepret the data if certain formatting steps are not followed correctly.

1. Give your data table a Title (right-click on the table and select Table Properties > Alt Text > Title)
2. In Table Properties > Row, ensure 'Repeat as header row at the top of each page' is ticked and 'Allow row to break across pages' is unticked.
3. Designate your table headers correctly. You should abe able to access these tickboxes  under then 'Table Design' tab (note that this table on appears in Microsoft Word when the table is selected)
4. Data tables must have only one header row and/or one header column
5. Make your tables as simple as possible. They should have no nested, merged or split cells.
6. Do not use the Draw Table tool to create the table - use Insert > Table instead.
7. Never display data using spaces instead of a table object.

Providing alternative text for images

If your exam paper contains an image or graph, you must provide alternative text to provide the same information for someone who cannot see it. To add alt text, follow the relevant instructions from Microsoft for your version of Windows/Mac and Office. 

The alt text itself should describe the image with sufficient detail for a student with a visual disability to receive the same key information. For instance, describing a chart as 'A bar chart showing sales over time,' for example, would not be adequate for a student to answer a question that relies on interpreting the sales data. Instead, summarise the insight, e.g. 'A bar chart showing sales over time. In July, sales for brand A surpassed sales for brand B and kept increasing throughout the year.' and include data such as percentages, dates in the alt text or in an accompanying table. Alt text should also clearly describe the beginning point, progress, and conclusion of flow charts.

Microsoft have a short guide that you may find useful in writing alt text.

Creating accessible PDFs

There are a few easy steps that you can take when exporting a Word doc to PDF that will make the end result more accessible. Ensure that the end result contains text that you can highlight on screen: an image PDF (a snapshot or scanned image of your document) is not at all accessible.

In Microsoft Word (Windows):

1. Do not print to PDF. This method will not preserve the document structure and will result in a PDF document with no tag structure.
2. Select 'Save As' in the file tab.
3. Select the location you want your file to be saved at, i.e.: Desktop, Documents folder
4. Select 'PDF' from the 'Save as Type' Drop down menu.
5. Click the Options button below the drop down menu.
6. Check the box next to the 'ISO 19005-1 Compliant (PDF/A)' and press OK.
7. Save your file.

In Microsoft Word (Mac):

 Do not print to PDF

1. Click 'File' tab and select 'Save A Copy'.
2. Select the location you want to save your file (i.e. Desktop, Documents folder, or other location)
3. Select 'PDF' from the 'Save as' Type drop-down menu.
4. Select the button next to 'Best for electronic distribution and accessibility'
5. Click 'Export'.