Before making a document accessible, users must first enable the Accessibility option in the Document Settings section. Without enabling this option, the accessible design features will not be available.

Once enabled, users can make their documents accessible in two ways:

• During design: Apply accessibility best practices while creating the document to ensure compliance from the start.
  
  
• After design: Complete the document first, then use the built-in Accessibility Validator to check its accessibility level.
  
  

The validator provides a score along with actionable suggestions, such as improving contrast, adjusting font sizes, or enhancing screen reader compatibility. Users can then apply these changes and use the Accessibility Preview feature to experience how the document will be read by assistive technologies, ensuring full accessibility before distribution.

Let’s look at how you can make your document accessible during the design process itself:

a) Document Level Summary:
A document-level summary is an overall summary of the entire document. For example, if you are designing a bank statement, instead of reading through the full content, users can choose to listen only to the summary. This section highlights the key details of the document and can be provided in the Document Summary section.

How to add a Document Summary to your document?
1. From the left-hand menu, click Document Settings.

2. In the Document Summary section, enter a short summary that helps screen readers convey the purpose of the document.



3. Click Save to add the Overall Document Summary. 



4 .To review it, go to the Preview and Download section and select Accessibility Preview. 



b) Element Level Summary:
Users can provide not only an overall document summary but also summaries for individual elements within the document, such as shapes, images, charts, and tables. These summaries can then be reviewed using the Accessibility Preview feature.