Meeting minutes are one of the most important documents a Parish Council produces. They form the official record of decisions made on behalf of your community, and every member of that community deserves access to them.
Too often, minutes are saved in formats that screen readers cannot interpret, uploaded without proper structure, or presented in ways that make them unusable for people with visual impairments, dyslexia, or other accessibility needs.
The good news? Making your minutes accessible doesn’t require specialist software or hours of extra work.
By following these 10 practical steps, you can ensure your documents work for everyone and meet your obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018.
You can also download our PDF help guide on creating accessible meeting minutes in both Microsoft Word and Google Docs.
Why accessibility matters for Parish Councils
Your legal obligation
Under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018, public sector bodies (including Parish and Town Councils) are required to make their websites and digital content accessible to people with disabilities. This includes documents uploaded to your website, such as agendas, minutes, and policies.
Failure to comply can result in complaints to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, reputational damage, and the exclusion of residents who have the legal right to participate in local democracy.
Who benefits from accessible documents?
Accessible documents aren’t just for those with disabilities; they benefit everyone.
- People using screen readers due to visual impairments
- Residents with dyslexia who rely on specific fonts or text spacing
- Older residents who use screen magnification software
- People accessing documents on mobile devices
- Residents whose first language is not English, who may use translation tools
- Anyone searching for specific information within a long document
When you make your minutes accessible, you are making local democracy work for your whole community.
Your step-by-step checklist
1. Use proper heading styles, not just bold text
The single most important thing you can do for accessibility is to use proper heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc.) rather than simply making text bold or increasing the font size.
Screen readers use heading structure to navigate documents; without it, a visually impaired user has no way to jump between agenda items or find a specific section. Headings also make documents searchable and generate a navigation table of contents.
💡Tip: Use Heading 1 for the document title, Heading 2 for each agenda item, and Heading 3 for subitems. Never skip heading levels.
2. Choose an accessible font & size
Use a clear font (e.g., Arial, Calibri, or Verdana) at a minimum of 12pt for body text. Avoid decorative or serif fonts, which can be harder to read for people with dyslexia.
Never use italics for large blocks of text, and avoid underlining text that isn’t a hyperlink, as it can be confused for a link. Simple, clean typography isn’t just good design; it’s an accessibility essential that costs you nothing to implement.
💡Tip: Dyslexia affects around 1 in 10 people in the UK. Clear font choices make a measurable difference for a significant portion of your community.
3. Ensure sufficient colour contrast
If you use colour anywhere in your document (table headers, highlighted sections, or branded text), make sure the contrast between text and background is strong enough to read.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) recommend a minimum contrast ratio of 4:5:1 for normal text. Light grey on white is one of the most common failures.
If in doubt, stick to black text on a white background for the body of your minutes, and test and coloured elements using a free contrast checker tool before publishing.
💡Tip: Use the WebAIM Contrast Checker to test any colour combination before you publish.
4. Add alt text to every image and logo
Your Parish Council logo, a map of the village, a photo from an event, or any image in your document needs alternative text (alt text). This is the description a screen reader will read aloud to a visually impaired user in place of the image.
Without it, they simply hear “image” and move on, missing potentially important context. A good alt text is a single, clear, descriptive sentence that explains exactly what the image shows and why it matters.
💡Tip: Instead of leaving alt text blank for your logo, you can write: Anyshire Parish Council logo featuring an oak tree. You don’t need to worry about including colours.
5. Use the built-in accessibility checker before you save
Both Microsoft Word and Google Docs (via third-party tools) allow you to check your document for accessibility issues before it ever reaches a resident.
In Word, go to Review > Check Accessibility to open a panel listing errors, warnings, and even tips. Each with a clear explanation and suggested fix.
It takes under two minutes and automatically catches the most common problems, such as missing alt text, poor contrast, skipped heading levels, and unlabelled tables. Make running the accessibility checker a standard part of your sign-off process, just as you do spell check.
💡Tip: Always fix all errors first, then work through warnings. A document with zero errors is the minimum standard to aim for before uploading.
6. Export as a properly tagged PDF, not “Print to PDF”
This is where many Parish Councils unknowingly undo all their hard work. Using “Print to PDF” strips your heading structure, alt text, and reading order, producing a flat, inaccessible file that looks identical on screen but is completely unusable for screen reader users.
Instead, always export using Word’s built-in Save As function, choose PDF, click options, and ensure ‘Document structure tag for accessibility’ and ‘Create bookmarks using Headings’ are both ticked.
In Google Docs, use File > Download > PDF to preserve the document's structure automatically.
💡Tip: An inaccessible PDF is the single most common accessibility failure on Parish Council websites. Getting this setup right makes the biggest immediate difference.
7. Use proper lists, never manually type dashes or hyphens
When you type a dash or hyphen at the start of a line to create a visual list, it looks like a list, but it isn’t one. Screen readers will read it as a dash character and won’t announce it as structured list content.
Always use the built-in bullet and numbered tools in Word or Google Docs. These create proper semantic list markup that assistive technology can understand, count and navigate, making your action points, decisions, and agenda items far easier to follow for anyone using a screen reader or accessibility software.
💡Tip: Search your document for ‘ - ’ (space dash space). If you find any, replace them with proper bulleted list items using the toolbar button.
8. Give your document a clear, descriptive file name
Accessibility doesn’t stop at the document itself; it extends to how you save and label it. A file named ‘doc 1.pdf’ or ‘final_FINAL_v3.pdf’ tells a resident nothing about what it contains.
Use a clear, consistent naming convention, such as March-2026-Meeting-Minutes.pdf and ensure you use hyphens instead of spaces, as these can cause broken links.
It’s best practice to include the date and keep the name human-readable and easy to organise. This will help residents find the right document, help search engines surface it correctly, and make your growing archive far easier to manage.
💡Tip: For best naming conventions, you should adopt a format and stick to it. It’s best to keep things as consistent as possible.
9. Write descriptive link text when uploading to your website
When you add a link to your minutes on your HugoFox website, the text of that link matters. Screen readers read link text out of context, presenting users with a list of all links on a page.
“Click here” or “download” tells a visually impaired user absolutely nothing about where the link goes or what the file contains. Instead, use specific, descriptive text such as “Download the Parish Council meeting minutes from March 2025” and then hyperlink the whole sentence.
This makes everything clearer, including for residents searching for a specific meeting on a mobile device.
💡Tip: HugoFox generates accessible page structures automatically, but the link text you type is entirely in your hands. Take an extra 10 seconds to write it properly; it makes a real difference.
10. Review & update your document archive regularly
Accessibility is not a one-off task; it requires ongoing attention. As your minutes archive grows, older documents uploaded before these standards were adopted may still be inaccessible.
Set aside time each year to audit your document library. Replace the most-visited older minutes with properly accessible versions, ensure all new uploads follow this checklist, and organise your document pages clearly by year, date, and committee, where relevant.
💡Tip: Add a document accessibility review to your annual council calendar. Even updating your 10 most-visited documents each year makes a significant cumulative difference.
Need some help?
As well as downloading our clear guide attached to this article, you can contact our UK-based support team, which is always on hand to help with all aspects of your Parish Council’s digital presence.