Published on: November 28, 2025
In higher education, creating accessible documents is both a moral imperative and a legal necessity. Universities serve diverse audiences, including students and staff with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive impairments.
In the U.S. alone, over 61 million adults live with a disability – equivalent to roughly 1 in 4 people. If course materials, syllabi, brochures, or reports aren’t accessible, a significant portion of potential readers and learners are effectively excluded.
Beyond inclusivity, accessibility impacts a university’s reputation and compliance status. Laws such as ADA Title III (for public-facing content in the U.S.), Section 508 (for U.S. federal institutions), and the WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines set clear standards that academic content must meet.
Failing to provide accessible digital content (for example, a PDF without alt text or a document that can’t be navigated via keyboard) can not only undermine student success but also expose institutions to legal risks.
Accessibility isn’t just about “doing the right thing” – it yields practical benefits for universities. When documents are readable by assistive technologies and easy to navigate, more people can find, use, and trust the content, improving engagement and reach.
With Flipsnack, you can create accessible documents from your existing PDFs, from scratch, or starting from a template.
Universities have a mission to provide equal educational opportunities. All students should be able to access course content, policies, and informational materials.
When materials aren’t formatted for screen readers or lack descriptive alt text, some students face unnecessary barriers.
A recent multi-country study of university teaching staff found that inaccessible educational materials significantly restrict students with disabilities from acquiring the knowledge they need for academic success.
Academic institutions face growing pressure to meet accessibility standards like ADA and WCAG. This is especially true for public universities and colleges.
Universities must ensure digital documents are:
Different countries have specific regulations:
Non-compliance can result in lawsuits or government action. An accessible PDF course catalog or online campus brochure isn’t just best practice—it’s often legally required.
Accessible content benefits everyone. Clear headings, screen reader-compatible text, and keyboard-friendly navigation improve the experience for all readers.
Accessibility features help multiple audiences:
Studies in user behavior indicate that younger audiences (like Gen Z students) will quickly leave content that is hard to navigate.
Making documents intuitive and barrier-free keeps readers engaged longer. It also strengthens your institution’s reputation for inclusivity and innovation.
An often overlooked advantage of accessible documents is better SEO and discoverability. Content that is machine-readable (with proper text structure and alt tags) will be indexed more thoroughly by search engines.
For universities, this means that accessible flipbook brochures or reports are more likely to appear in search results, helping prospective students or researchers find relevant information.
In short, accessible content not only broadens your human audience but can also boost your online visibility.
A typical PDF of a syllabus or annual report may look professional, but if it’s just a scanned image or missing proper tagging, screen readers can’t interpret it. In fact, most PDFs and digital documents lack the necessary tags and structure for accessibility, which excludes millions of users who depend on assistive tech.
Common issues with traditional documents include:
While PDFs and other static formats are familiar, they often require significant remediation (adding tags, alt text, etc.) to meet accessibility standards. Without the right tools or expertise, a university could unknowingly publish content that screen reader users, keyboard-only users, or colorblind users struggle with or cannot use at all.
This is where digital publishing platforms like Flipsnack come into play as a solution.
Flipsnack turns PDFs or templates into interactive, mobile-friendly flipbooks while keeping accessibility in focus. You can publish course materials, brochures, magazines, and reports as flipbooks that still meet WCAG 2.1 AA and ADA requirements, so you do not trade accessibility for interactivity.
Flipsnack’s Design Studio, viewer, and website are built to follow WCAG, ADA, and Section 508. Universities still need to test their own flipbooks, yet they begin from a platform that already respects core accessibility rules. Each new publication can then be both engaging and inclusive by default.
When accessibility is enabled, readers can open an Accessibility Panel in the viewer. This shows the content in a clean text view that works well with screen readers and presents the page in a logical reading order, even if the visual layout is complex.
Flipsnack’s viewer can be used entirely with a keyboard. Readers can move between pages, follow links, open the Accessibility Panel, and use controls without a mouse. This is essential for users with motor impairments and also improves usability for power users who prefer keyboard shortcuts.
Creators can add or edit alternative text for images, charts, and other non-text elements directly in the editor. That means a campus map, data chart, or photo in a digital magazine can always have a meaningful description that a screen reader will read aloud.
Flipsnack keeps a clear structure behind the scenes. It preserves headings, lists, and other semantic elements from an accessible PDF and adds an accessibility layer so assistive technologies can parse the content correctly. This helps the flipbook meet WCAG requirements for document structure and navigation.
Flipsnack includes AI tools that can generate page summaries. This is useful for older or very visual documents, since it speeds up the work of creating an accessible text layer. Staff still review and refine the results, but they no longer start from a blank page.
Universities already publish a steady flow of magazines, guides, and reports. Turning these into accessible flipbooks in Flipsnack means readers can use screen readers and keyboard navigation while still getting a polished, interactive experience.
Manchester University publishes its Manchester Magazine as an online flipbook. It works as an alumni and community magazine that readers can browse in a browser instead of downloading a PDF.
With accessibility turned on, this kind of publication can be read with a screen reader and navigated by keyboard. Alumni who cannot use a mouse or who rely on assistive tech can still move through articles, follow links, and read captions. The magazine stays professional, but it is no longer a barrier for part of the audience.
The University of Suffolk uses Flipsnack for several important documents, such as its postgraduate prospectus, research and knowledge exchange strategy, and legal advice centre report.
When these are published as accessible flipbooks, prospective students, partners, and community members can search the text, jump to sections, and use assistive technology to read the content. The same documents that support recruitment, strategy, and reporting also meet accessibility needs.
Beyond these examples, universities can use accessible flipbooks for many other materials, for example
All of these start as documents the university already creates. Publishing them as accessible flipbooks simply makes them easier to use for everyone, including people who rely on screen readers or keyboard navigation.
With these in mind, let’s see some free templates from Flipsnack you can use and make accessible.
Help new students navigate their first semester with less stress. This admissions handbook template covers the essentials: registration, accommodation, courses, and financial support.
Simply add your university’s specific details to this ready-made template. You can share it publicly on your website or send it directly to incoming students.
A modern prospectus designed for showcasing your programs and campus life. This template supports interactive elements like embedded videos, clickable links, contact forms, and page navigation—making it easy for prospective students to explore what your university offers.
The layout includes space for program details, admission requirements, campus highlights, and student support services. Perfect for universities that want to create an engaging digital first impression.
A practical resource for teachers and administrators who need to communicate program updates to families. This toolkit helps you create clear, actionable messages that parents will actually read and understand.
It includes ready-to-use flyers and email templates, communication best practices, and examples of what to avoid. Interactive features like embedded videos, audio explanations, and reflective questions make it easy to implement. Ideal for improving parent engagement across your district.
An interactive resource for delivering professional development sessions to educators. This guide includes session introductions, learning objectives, agendas, trainer bios, and follow-up resources—all in one organized document.
Interactive elements like embedded videos, quizzes, maps, and contact forms keep participants engaged. Perfect for hosting virtual or hybrid workshops with a polished, educator-friendly experience.
Support prospective students through the enrollment process with this comprehensive guide. It walks applicants through college preparation, the enrollment timeline, and interview preparation.
Add interactive elements like videos, page navigation buttons, and slideshows to make the content more engaging. Use Flipsnack’s AI to generate alt text summaries for accessibility. Share it on your website or social media to reach more applicants.
Accessible documents are not optional for universities. They are about equal access, legal compliance, and giving everyone a usable reading experience. Static PDFs and print thinking do not match how students, staff, and alumni actually consume information today.
Flipsnack gives universities a practical way to publish accessible versions of the documents they already create, from course syllabi to annual reports. You keep the design and interactivity, while students with screen readers, staff with mobility impairments, and alumni with low vision can still access the same content.
Adopting accessible flipbooks is a simple, visible step toward academic quality and genuine inclusivity, and it shows that no one on campus is an afterthought.
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