diff --git a/Doc/Makefile b/Doc/Makefile
index da3274396eb5e07..7f3e216c70e8fd7 100644
--- a/Doc/Makefile
+++ b/Doc/Makefile
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ dist:
 	cp -pPR build/epub/Python.epub dist/python-$(DISTVERSION)-docs.epub
 
 check:
-	$(PYTHON) tools/rstlint.py -i tools
+	$(PYTHON) tools/rstlint.py -i tools -i $(VENVDIR) -i README.rst
 
 serve:
 	../Tools/scripts/serve.py build/html
diff --git a/Doc/conf.py b/Doc/conf.py
index b3f26d5a692163a..4145fd5a90a7725 100644
--- a/Doc/conf.py
+++ b/Doc/conf.py
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@
 needs_sphinx = '1.2'
 
 # Ignore any .rst files in the venv/ directory.
-exclude_patterns = ['venv/*']
+venvdir = os.getenv('VENVDIR', 'venv')
+exclude_patterns = [venvdir+'/*', 'README.rst']
 
 
 # Options for HTML output