Accessible document copy

What accessible document copy is

This is the writing and structuring work that lets somebody using a screen reader move through your document as quickly as somebody reading it on paper. Real heading levels instead of big bold text. Lists marked as lists. Tables with header rows that are actually header rows. Link text that says where the link goes. Wording that does not trip the software up when spoken aloud.

Say plainly what this is not: it is the copy side only, and it does not replace a technical accessibility audit. I do not test with assistive technology, inspect code, colour contrast, focus order, form labels or keyboard navigation, and I certify nothing against a standard. Those are jobs for an accessibility specialist. What I fix is the part that lives in the words and the structure, and that is the part a writer can put right.

It is also not plain-language editing, though the two pair well. That service changes how hard the sentences are. This one changes how the document is built.

When you need it

When a document is going somewhere it will be read by people you cannot see. A workbook going to a public-sector client. A policy going to staff, some of whom use a screen reader every day. A downloadable report on a website. A set of pages a customer must work through to do something.

It is also the usual next step after somebody runs an automated checker over a file and hands you a list of failures nobody can interpret. Those tools find missing structure; they cannot write the heading that should have been there.

You do not need it if the only issue is the links. Replacing every “click here” is a job on its own, it is much cheaper done as a batch, and there is no sense in buying the larger service for it. You also do not need it if what you actually require is a formal audit for compliance reasons, in which case hire an accessibility specialist and bring me in afterwards to write what they find missing.

What gets fixed

• Headings. Every heading made a real heading at the right level, in order, with none skipped. A heading that is only 18-point bold text does not exist to a screen reader, and a document made of those is read as one unbroken block. The wording is fixed too, so each heading says what is under it.
• Lists and steps. Anything that is a list marked as one, so it is announced as a list with a known number of items. Procedures numbered in the order they are done, with each step containing one action.
• Tables. Header rows marked as headers, so each cell is announced with its column. Merged cells and layout tables unpicked, because a table used for appearance is unreadable read aloud.
• Link text. Every link rewritten to describe its destination, so a reader listing the links gets a usable list rather than forty entries reading “here”. Bare addresses replaced with words.
• Wording that is spoken. Capitalised words that get spelled out letter by letter. Abbreviations expanded on first use. Unspaced slashes and symbols that are announced as names. Decorative characters, emoji in headings, and the same phrase repeated at the start of forty items so a listener has to sit through it each time.
• Reading order. Text boxes, sidebars and pull quotes checked for where they fall in the order the document is read, and moved or rewritten so a listener meets them at a sensible point.

What you get

The restructured document. Your file back, with the structure applied, the headings rewritten and the links changed. Clean, in your own format, ready to use or to hand to a designer.

The change note. Two pages listing what I changed and why, grouped by type, so whoever writes the next document sees the pattern rather than a thousand individual edits.

The referral list. Anything I found that is outside the copy side — colour contrast, an untagged export, a form field with no label, a video with no captions — written down for whoever handles the technical work. It is a list of things to look at, not an audit, and I will say so on the call as well.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A Winnipeg safety training provider has a 54-page course workbook, written in Word by three instructors over four years, and a public-sector client has asked for an accessible version before the next intake.

The document has no heading styles at all. Section titles are bold and enlarged, which means the file has one structural level and a screen reader user cannot jump anywhere. Forty-one lists are typed with hyphens and tabs. Nine tables are used for layout rather than data, and two real tables have merged cells in the header row. There are 96 links, of which 60 read “click here” or “this link”, and 14 are bare addresses printed in full. The work applies four heading levels, rewrites 23 heading titles that described nothing, converts the lists, rebuilds the two real tables and removes the nine layout ones, and rewrites every link. Six items go on the referral list, including two scanned diagrams that need to be redrawn and a video with no captions. The instructors keep the change note and the next module is written correctly from the start.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What the document is, who asked for it to be accessible, whether a formal audit is also happening, and what format it has to end up in. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Based on length and on how much structure the file has now, which is usually the bigger factor.
3. You send the source file. The editable original, not a PDF export, plus any style template you use.
4. The work. Structure first, then headings, then links and wording, then a read of the whole thing in order. Four to ten working days for a document of that size.
5. Delivery. The restructured file, the change note and the referral list, with half an hour to go through anything that needs your decision.

What it costs

This is quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call, because the size varies with how much structure a document already has: a well-built file needs its links and headings rewritten, while a file with no styles at all is rebuilt page by page. The pricing page shows the four ways I work. The number is fixed in writing before I start. It buys the copy side; a technical accessibility audit is a separate purchase from a specialist.

What happens next

The images in the same document usually need descriptions, and writing those properly is the natural companion to this work. If the wording is still heavy going once the structure is right, that is plain-language editing. Where the document is really a set of web pages, the equivalent reordering happens in the site itself as page structure and headings. This work is complete on its own, and nothing further is assumed.