A Guide to Creating an Accessible Resume 

Accessible resumes are important because they ensure equal opportunities for all individuals. By prioritizing accessible resumes, candidates showcase their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This commitment can resonate with employers, demonstrating shared values and increasing the likelihood of a positive employer-employee match. Overall accessible resumes promote inclusivity, comply with legal requirements, widen the talent pool, improve the candidate experience, enhance communication, demonstrate organizational values, and contribute to building an inclusive work environment.  

Screen Reader 

Screen Readers are a tool used to read aloud documents. The following sections are crucial to ensuring your resume can be correctly interpreted and read by a Screen Reader. Common Screen Reader platforms include Voiceover (Mac), JAWS and NVDA. You can check readability within word by searching “Read aloud” with the setting search bar. 

Many employers are using technology to scan resumes. You want to make sure your resume is readable by this technology, or it could be taken out of consideration. Do not use complex templates that you find online through Canva, Etsy, etc.  

Example of an inaccessible document read out loud.  

Jobscan is an additional resource to ensure your resume can be properly scanned through an employer’s scanning technology.  

Microsoft Accessibility Checker 

Microsoft Office features a built-in tool to check for accessibility concerns. Regularly check this to ensure you are avoiding major access issues. If you are unable to locate the Accessibility Checker within an application, try using the search feature.  

Using the Accessibility Checker. 

Accessibility inspection results- "No accessibility issues found. People with disabilities should not have difficulty reading this document."

Formatting 

It is important to be cognizant of document hierarchy and properly utilize headers. Ensure your headers are consistent and meaningfully named. Utilize Word’s “Styles” tool to denote headers versus normal body text. This type of organization assists someone reading with a screen reader and can make the document more readable and useful for all readers. 

Microsoft Word Styles menu with Heading 1 selected

Additionally, you will want to check the reading order of your content to ensure your content will be read in the correct, logical order. This can be done using the accessibility checker.  

Emphasis 

Consider using a visual indicator to emphasize important information such as bold or italicized font. Additionally, avoid utilizing an underline as an indicator as it may suggest a hyperlink.  

Bulleted Lists 

When possible, break up content into bulleted lists.  

  • Avoid creating a “wall of text” which can discourage reading and make it hard to know what is important.  
  • Do not manually create a bulleted list.  
  • Please use the built-in tool with the Paragraph section to ensure that a screen reader processes the list correctly.  

Links 

You may utilize hyperlinks on your resume (Ex. LinkedIn, GitHub or a Digital Portfolio). Use ordinary, meaningful language in the display text of a URL instead of the direct hyperlink. This is because screen reading software may read out each letter of a hyperlink which can be time consuming and unnecessary. Additionally, avoid phrases like “click here,” as this is not useful to a screen reader in indicating the content of the link.  

Example – 

Use LinkedIn Profile  

Do Not Use https://www.linkedin.com/feed/  

Notes: email addresses are an exception. 

Follow these steps to ensure you are creating accessible hyperlinks: 

  1. Copy the link you want to work with into a Word document and turn it into a hyperlink. 
  1. Select the whole URL, including the “http” at the beginning and the domain at the end. 
  1. Right-click to open the context menu, then find and select Edit Hyperlink. 
  1. In the dialog box, look for a text box labeled Text to display. Type in the description text you want. 
  1. Click OK. 

Alt-Text 

The Career Development Center advises against using images in a resume, but if you must submit a portfolio, add alternative text to the images. Alt-text is an embedded image description. It allows the content and function of image to be accessible to those who use a screen reader to access content (including individuals who are blind, with low vision, or other disabilities). Everything you need to know to write effective alt text. 

File Type 

Resumes should be saved as a PDF. Please be aware that there is a specific way to save a PDF so that a screen reader can process the file properly. This is called “tagging.” An untagged PDF cannot communicate properly with a Screen Reader. It is difficult to convert an untagged PDF into a converted PDF if you do not have the original document. It is important to follow proper steps when saving a file to ensure it is tagged. Instructions for saving a Word document as a tagged PDF.