Accessible Contracts & Agreements

Why Contract Accessibility Is a Legal and Business Imperative

Contracts and legal agreements must be accessible to all parties who need to read, understand, and sign them. Under the European Accessibility Act, financial services companies, banks, and e-commerce businesses must ensure customer-facing documents—including loan agreements, terms of service, and contracts—meet accessibility standards by June 28, 2025.

Beyond regulatory requirements, accessible contracts are simply good business practice. When a customer can't independently read and complete a contract, you're excluding them from doing business with you. Approximately 15% of the population has some form of disability—that's a significant customer segment to exclude.

Who Needs Accessible Contracts? Financial institutions (loan agreements, account terms, investment documents), employers (employment contracts, offer letters, HR policies), e-commerce and subscription services (terms of service, user agreements), and any organization that provides contracts to customers or partners digitally.

Legal Risk Inaccessible contracts create liability exposure. If a party signs a contract they couldn't independently read due to accessibility barriers, questions arise about informed consent. Employment contracts with accessibility issues may violate disability discrimination laws. Consumer contracts failing accessibility standards may be challenged under consumer protection regulations.

Accessibility Challenges in Contracts and Legal Documents

Legal documents present specific accessibility challenges due to their structure, formatting conventions, and interactive elements.

Form Fields and Interactive Elements Contracts typically include fillable fields for names, dates, signatures, and other information. Without proper accessibility markup, these fields are invisible or unusable to screen reader users. Form fields need programmatic labels, logical tab order, and proper role/value attributes. Signature fields require particular attention—users must be able to locate, navigate to, and complete signature blocks independently.

Dense Legal Text Structure Legal documents have specific structural conventions—numbered clauses, sub-clauses, defined terms, cross-references. This structure must be conveyed through proper PDF tags, not just visual formatting. Users navigating by headings should be able to move between major sections. Bookmarks should reflect the document's logical structure.

Tables and Schedules Contracts often include schedules, exhibits, and tables containing critical information—payment schedules, fee structures, property descriptions. These tables need proper header cell markup and scope attributes. Complex tables with merged cells or multiple header levels require explicit cell associations.

Small Print and Disclaimers Legal documents frequently include disclaimer text, footnotes, and 'small print.' These must meet color contrast requirements (4.5:1 minimum for normal text) and be included in the logical reading order. Users shouldn't need to hunt through decorative elements to find important terms.

Multi-Party and Signature Blocks Contracts with multiple parties have repeated signature blocks, witness sections, and notary acknowledgments. Each must be accessible with clear labels identifying which party is signing.

Contract Remediation: From Inaccessible to Compliant

Contract remediation requires both structural accessibility fixes and careful attention to interactive elements.

Document Structure We establish proper PDF tag structure throughout the document—headings for sections and clauses, paragraphs for body text, lists for enumerated terms. We ensure heading hierarchy is logical (H1 for document title, H2 for major sections, H3 for subsections) and that all content is tagged or marked as artifact.

Form Field Accessibility Every form field receives a proper programmatic label that screen readers announce. We add tooltip descriptions where additional context is helpful. Tab order is set to follow the logical document flow. Required fields are properly identified. We test all interactive elements with screen readers to verify usability.

Table Remediation Schedules and tables receive proper TH/TD markup with scope attributes defining header relationships. For complex tables, we use explicit header-cell associations. We test tables with screen readers to ensure data relationships are announced correctly.

Signature Block Accessibility Signature fields receive clear labels identifying the signer and purpose. Date fields associated with signatures are labeled. We ensure users can locate all signature locations and understand what they're signing.

Navigation and Bookmarks Long contracts receive bookmark structures enabling efficient navigation. Users can jump directly to specific sections, schedules, or exhibits rather than scrolling through the entire document.

Validation Remediated contracts are validated against PDF/UA requirements and tested with NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver. We provide compliance certificates documenting the standards met.

Making Contract Templates Accessible from the Source

One-off remediation addresses existing contracts, but organizations issuing contracts regularly need accessible templates.

Template Assessment We assess your existing contract templates—Word documents, PDF forms, or contract management system templates. We identify structural issues, form field problems, and accessibility barriers that will propagate to every contract generated from the template.

Template Remediation We remediate templates to produce accessible output: proper style mappings for Word templates that export accessible PDFs, PDF form templates with accessible fields and structure, and contract management system templates configured for accessibility.

Document Generation Integration For organizations using document assembly or contract lifecycle management systems, we can advise on accessibility configuration. Many systems can produce accessible output with proper setup—but require specific configuration that isn't default.

Testing New Contracts After template remediation, we recommend testing sample generated contracts to verify accessibility is maintained through the generation process. Variables, merged data, and conditional sections can sometimes break accessibility.

Ongoing Compliance When templates are updated or new contract types are introduced, accessibility review should be part of the change process. EqualXS offers ongoing review services to ensure your contract templates remain compliant as your business evolves.