Name and title files in a helpful way

The name and title of your document is important as it will help users of assistive technology to locate the file in a folder or when open in an application with other files.

This guidance currently aligns with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and is being updated to reflect WCAG 2.2.

Organisations subject to the Web Accessibility Directive or the European Accessibility Act should refer to WCAG 2.2 (W3C.org)(w3.org) (w3.org)(w3.org) (w3.org), as compliance will be required when the revised EN 301 549 standard (PDF)(etsi.org) (etsi.org)(etsi.org) (etsi.org) is published in the Official Journal of the European Union in December 2026.

Techniques

Use a filename that is easily read and understood

If you cannot use spaces in your filenames, substitute underscores or dashes for spaces;
If you have a lot of documents belonging to a series, put the most identifiable content towards the front of the filename to allow users to quickly find the most appropriate document amongst a list of many;
Avoid using special or reserved characters such as @, ., ~, *, in filenames, as they will not be supported by all operating systems and may cause confusion when announced by screen readers. Alternatively, they may be ignored completely.

Provide a “title” for the document

Add this by going to “File”; “Properties”; “Summary”;
The title can be the same as the main heading.

Example of bad practice

“ndaaccessibilitytechiniquescp3.5_names.docx”

The non-unique part is at the front of the filename; spaces have been removed from between individual words but not replaced with any other characters; a full-stop has been used in the reference number; the unique, descriptive part of the file name has been shortened so much that it no longer accurately reflects the content.

Example of good practice

“CP3-5_Name-and-title-files-in-a-helpful-way_NDA-accessibility-techiniques.docx”

The unique content is at the front of the filename and accurately reflects the content; spaces have been removed from between individual words and replaced by underscores and dashes; the full-stop in the reference number has been replaced by a dash; the non-unique part is at the end.

Name and title files in a helpful way

Techniques

Use a filename that is easily read and understood

Provide a “title” for the document

Example of bad practice

Example of good practice

References for this section

WCAG 2.1

EN 301 549 v 2.1.2