Make Lucid documents more accessible

Improve accessibility for yourself

Whether you are editing a document or viewing a document that has been shared with you, there are several settings within Lucid’s products that can help improve your experience based on your specific needs. Read the sections below for more details.

Use keyboard and canvas navigation shortcuts

Lucid has a variety of keyboard shortcuts you can use to work in Lucid more quickly or with increased accessibility. Keyboard shortcuts are specific to the type of device you’re using—to get a complete list of what’s available to you on your device, follow these steps:

1. Open a Lucid document.
2. Press FN+F1 on your keyboard.
3. Review the list of available keyboard commands in Lucid in the pop-up window that appears over the right side of your document.

The image below shows an example of the panel that appears when you press FN+F1 on your keyboard. This example only shows a portion of the available screenshots and is specific to a Mac keyboard. To see all shortcuts specific to your device, press FN+F1 while in a Lucid document.

In addition to keyboard shortcuts, we recommend using canvas navigation in Lucid to make selections from toolbars and move between objects on the canvas and within containers. You can find detailed step-by-step instructions to enable and Navigate objects in Lucid with a keyboard in the Lucid Help Center.

Adjust document settings

You can change the following document settings to adjust your viewing or editing experience in Lucid:

• In Lucidchart and Lucidspark:
  • Turn off collaborator cursors to reduce the amount of movement on the canvas.
  • Change the Navigation Mode to reflect whether you are using a mouse or trackpad.
• In Lucidchart:
  • Toggle off GIF animation.
  • Change the appearance of the shapes panel to include text descriptions.
• In Lucidspark
  • Reduce motion when panning around your board with a cursor or trackpad.

Adjust user settings

In your Lucid account settings, there are two accessibility options you can set for your specific account. When you set these preferences, you can expect this to be your experience across all your Lucidchart and Lucidspark documents.

The first preference you can set is to manually dismiss floating notifications to allow more time to read notifications. The second option is to disable character key shortcuts for more control over keyboard navigation. Both options are designed to improve your experience using a screen reader to navigate objects and elements in Lucid.

To set your accessibility preferences, follow these steps:

1. Select your profile icon or initials in the upper-right corner of the Lucid Home Page or a document.
2. From the menu that appears, click Account settings.
3. From the menu to the far-left of the page, select User settings.
4. Scroll down to the “Accessibility settings” section.
5. Select a box to enable the option to “Manually dismiss floating notifications” and “Disable character key shortcuts” based on your preferences as shown in the screenshot below.
   
6. Select Save changes in the upper-right corner.

View plain text names of colors

If you need certain colors to have more differentiation, hover your cursor over a color in your document’s color picker to get a plain text name of the color. These names also appear when you select a sticky note from the Primary Toolbar to the left side of a Lucidspark board.

Adjust zoom settings

Use the zoom settings in the bottom-right corner of your Lucid workspace to increase or decrease the size of the content on your screen.

Using the document’s zoom settings only affects the document’s contents, not the toolbars. If you want a larger version of the toolbar, increase the zoom in your browser settings.

Use a screen reader in Lucid

Improve accessibility for others

When creating a document that will be viewed by others, there are many ways you can use existing Lucid features to make it more accessible to viewers with different needs. Read the sections below for more details.

General best practices for accessible content

When creating content, it’s important to be considerate and mindful of your audience and that always includes accessibility. Although non-exhaustive, the following best practices will help you create more accessible documents in Lucid.

Use inclusive and non-assumptive language
Not everyone who accesses your Lucid documents uses the same methods to understand the information. Be thoughtful and discerning when choosing which words you use to communicate the message. For example, instead of “see this page for more information,” use “review this page for more information.”

Avoid jargon, overly technical terms, and idioms
To ensure your message is clear and actionable for everyone, use standard language. For example, use “collaborate” instead of “synergize.”

Be descriptive with hyperlinks
Help your audience understand what will happen when they click a link. For example, instead of “click here,” use “open this page in a new tab.”

Include alt text with images
Alt text provides an additional way for your audience to get value from your content in Lucid. When writing alt text, use short and descriptive words to describe an image.

In Lucid, you can use built-in alt text functionality. Learn more and follow the steps in the Optimize your document for screen readers with alt text section of this article. Don’t start alt text or image descriptions with “Image of” to avoid redundancy.

Tip: Alt text functionality in Lucid can only be read by screen readers after downloading a PDF of the document. Another option to improve accessibility is to include a brief description below an image in plain text.

Customize with accessible styles

The first step toward creating more accessible documents is to customize them using formatting styles and colors that are inclusive and support accessibility needs.

Color
When choosing colors to customize your document, consider these suggestions:

• Use high color contrast with the background, objects, lines, and text.
• Use more than just color to provide more information.
  • For example, when using a red sticky note to signify that something is on-hold, consider also adding a tag or other type of label as well.
• Change the background color of your document to be dark to reduce strain on the eyes. As an alternative, use dark frames while maintaining a lighter background.

Text
To make text easier to read, consider the following options:

• Increase font size when possible.
• Use simple fonts that are easier to read, such as Liberation Sans.
• Add captions below images to describe what they show and their purpose.

Lines
When using lines to connect objects in your document:

• Increase the pixel size to make the lines thicker and easier to follow.
• Avoid crossing lines over each other if possible. When it is unavoidable, consider using contrasting colors or line jumps.

Organize content and reduce distractions

In addition to being intentional about the styles and customization you use in your Lucid document, organizing the content and reducing distractions can also add to document’s readability and accessibility.

Organize content
When planning the overall organization of your board, place items in a linear pattern allowing for easy scrolling even when the content is zoomed in. Lucid has a variety of features to help with organizing content. Review the chart below for details on where these features are available. To get more information about a feature, click the relevant linked text in the first column of the table.

*Dynamic Table is only available to premium accounts. Review the Upgrade your Lucid account article for instructions to upgrade.

Reduce distractions
The following tips can help your document’s viewers stay focused on the content:

• Be consistent with color choices. Use high contrast between text and backgrounds, but avoid excessively bright colors.
• Reduce motion on the canvas by using GIFs sparingly.
• Use simple language and bulleted lists when possible. Avoid large chunks of text.

Guide collaborator attention when presenting

Organizing content and reducing distractions can improve the readability of your document when you share or publish it. These same principles apply when you are presenting your document to a live audience. The following tips can help your audience fully understand the material you are presenting:

• Organize your document using presentations.
• Invite others to follow you as you navigate through the document.
• Use facilitator tools in Lucidspark.
• Encourage your audience to hide collaborator cursors if they find the movement disruptive.

Optimize your document for screen readers with alt text

Using the Accessibility Settings in Lucidchart and Lucidspark, you can add alt text to objects in your document and change the order in which a screen reader reads objects on an accessible PDF that has been downloaded.

Add alt text to images

1. Right-click an image on the canvas.
2. Select Add alt text.
3. Type a description of the image in the panel that appears.
4. Click Save.

Add alt text to objects

1. Open the More menu from the top-left of the canvas.
2. From the dropdown, hover your cursor over “Export”.
3. Select PDF.
4. Under “Advanced” in the export options, check the box next to “Accessible PDF”.
5. Click Accessibility Settings.
6. Select an item from the workspace or from the numbered list on the right-hand side of the page.
7. Type a description of the object in the box under “Alt Text” in the upper-right corner of the page.

Add alt text to hyperlinks

Following the steps in the “Add alt text to objects”  section above, use alt text to specify the purpose and destination of any hyperlinks on the document. For example, a screen reader stating "Weather in New York City" is more user-friendly and descriptive than it reading the associated URL: https://weather.com/weather/today/l/USNY0996:1:US

Change the reading order

1. Follow steps 1-5 in the “Add alt text to objects” section above.
2. Usethe six-dot icon to drag the numbered items in the list to new positions.

Resources

To learn more about accessibility in Lucid, explore the additional resources below.

Community posts (English only)
Accessibility in Lucid
Improve accessibility by utilizing color and contrast: Make your documents inclusive!
List of available keyboard shortcuts in Lucid

Webpage
Lucid accessibility home page

Post in the Lucid Community

To discuss additional accessibility options in Lucid, join our conversation and give us your feedback in the Lucid Community.

If you are a user on a FedRAMP account, please use this form to share any feedback or feature requests.

Give feedback on this article