Accessibility Testing

Color Contrast

Color blindness affects 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women. Make sure to check the color contrast of the content in the document. The WCAG guidelines require a color contrast ratio of 4.5:1. You can use different tools to check the color contrast between the background and foreground.

WebAIM

WebAIM provides a free color contrast checker tool. Learn how to use the color contrast checkers on the accessible content page.

Accessibility Checker

Google Docs does not have a built-in accessibility checker. You can use the Grackle Docs add-on to run the accessibility tests on your document. Learn how to install Grackle Docs.

Once you have installed Grackle Docs, follow these steps to run the accessibility checker:

  1. Go to Add-ons > Grackle Docs > Launch.

    Launch Grackle
  2. Grackle Docs will run the accessibility tests, and a panel appears showing passed and failed tests.
    Grackle accessibility test
  3. You can click on each failed test to view the details of the issue and how to fix it.
    Grackle error example
  4. Go through the list and fix the accessibility issues.

Manual Testing

Accessibility checkers do not cover all the accessibility issues. You will still need to check the following issues manually:

  • Valid alt text: make sure the alt text conveys the meaning of the content
  • Valid hyperlinks: test hyperlinks to ensure they are correct and lead to valid, active pages before including them in your content.
  • Text in images: make sure the images do not include text except for a logo. If you do not have a choice, add all the text as alt text and display it on the screen.
  • Color contrast