Most NGO reports end up as a PDF on a website, and for many readers that PDF is the report. If it hasn’t been built for accessibility, people using screen readers, magnifiers or keyboard navigation can hit a wall on page one. The good news is that most of the work happens in the layout file, long before export.
An accessible PDF starts in the layout. Paragraph styles mapped to proper heading tags, text that flows in threaded stories rather than scattered boxes, and articles set in a logical reading order all carry through on export. Fixing a finished PDF in Acrobat is possible, but slow and fragile: every revision means doing it again. Getting the structure right at source means each new draft exports clean.
Every meaningful image needs a short description of what it shows and why it’s there. Decorative graphics should be marked as artifacts so screen readers skip them. Charts need the most care: a good description gives the key finding, not just “bar chart”, and the underlying numbers should sit in the text or a table nearby. Write alt text with the author, not after them.
Text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background, or 3:1 for large headings, to meet WCAG AA. Brand colours that look fine on screen often fail as small text, so it’s worth having a darker, text-safe version of each. Never rely on colour alone to carry meaning in charts or maps, and keep body text at a comfortable size with generous line spacing.
Tables need proper header rows so a screen reader can tell people which column they’re in. Links should make sense out of context: use the report title, not “click here”. Set the document language, and for bilingual or translated editions mark passages in other languages too. That way assistive technology pronounces Kreyòl or French correctly instead of reading it with an English voice.
Acrobat’s accessibility checker is a useful first pass, and the free PAC tool checks against the PDF/UA standard in more depth. Neither replaces listening to the document with a screen reader such as NVDA or VoiceOver, which shows quickly whether the reading order and headings make sense. For print-led projects, a separate digital edition built for screens is often the cleanest answer.
If you’re planning a report and want it accessible from the first draft, get in touch.
Published: November 2026
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