tips for making accessible content with microsoft office accessga and amac accessibility
TRANSCRIPT
Tips for Making Accessible Content with Microsoft Office
AccessGA and AMAC Accessibility
Agenda
– Objectives: • Share AccessGA resources with AMAC staff• Get your feedback and suggestions
– Topics:• What makes a document accessible?
– Document structure– Navigation– Alternative text– Reading order– Labels
• How to create accessible documents (Microsoft Word and Powerpoint):– Standards, Techniques, Best Practices– Accessibility Checker– Resources AccessGA Wiki
Why Create Accessible Documents
Consider USERS with a variety of abilities and needs:
• Are blind or visually impaired• Have difficulty holding a book or turning pages
• Have a learning disability
• Or have any other difficulty interacting with printed text
• Are deaf or hard of hearing and require multimedia to be captioned
• Demonstration with Accessible PDF and AT software
Background and Regulations
• ADA• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 • Department of Justice's revised ADA Title II and Title III regulations
Electronic and information technology is required to be accessible for individuals with disabilities.
Standards and WCAG Guidelines 2.0
• US Access Board• World Wide Web Consortium
1. Content must be perceivable 2. Interface components in the content must be operable. 3. Content and controls must be understandable. 4. Content should be robust enough to work with current and future
user agents (including assistive technologies)
Techniques
• Provide document structure by using appropriate headings (<H1>, <H2>, <H3>). Screen readers rely on document markup language for navigation.
• Add appropriate alternative text descriptions to all meaningful images.
• Add appropriate alt text to charts and graphs, and tables.• Provide logical reading order.
Techniques continued
• Provide sufficient color contrast between text and background colors.
• Do not use color as the sole means of communicating information such as required fields and error messages.
• Provide context for hyperlinks.• Use fonts that are easy to read.• Explain all acronyms.
Additional Considerations
• Ensure that document files posted on websites contain text and are not scanned images. (Copying a document on a photocopier to create a PDF attachment creates a scanned image.)
• Create accessible PDF documents from accessible word documents. • Provide accurate metadata in document properties. • Create document templates with accessibility features built in.
Microsoft Word & Accessibility
• Use Word Styles to create document structure • Headings• Paragraph• Lists– Using Styles will ensure that document structure is retained
when file is exported to other formats.
Think like a Designer
Ditch direct formatting
Design with Styles
More Considerations for Word
• Tables• Columns• Alternative text• Meaningful hyperlinks• Document properties / metadata• Create accessible PDF from accessible Word doc
Microsoft Word Demonstration
Microsoft PowerPoint & Accessibility
• Templates • Layout• Reading order• Outline view• Export to PDF• How PowerPoint differs • How PowerPoint is the same
Accessible PowerPoint Demonstration
Use templates and titles
• Use built-in templates• Use unique titles for slides
– Go to Home Ribbon– Click on layout
Alt text
• Add alt text to images– Right-click the object– Select Format Picture…– Select the Alt Text
option from the list– Add summary alt text in
the description entry area.
Use Lists Styles
• Use bulleted lists• Use numbered lists
Tables
ID Institution Membership type Renewed
24 Georgia Institute of Technology
UGA yes
77 Georgia State Univ. UGA yes
82 Georgia Southern UGS yes
• To add a table with headings• Go to menu item: Insert• In the Tables section, select the Tables icon• Select the number of rows and columns you would like your table to have• Select the table and a Table Tools menu item should appear• Go to menu item: Table Tools > Design• In the Table Style Options section, select the Header Row check box
Note: Whenever possible, keep tables simple with just 1 row of headings.• Add alt text to Tables.
Set order for floating objects
• Go to menu item: Home• In the Drawing section, select Arrange >
Selection Pane…• In the Selection and Visibility pane, all the
elements on the slide are listed in reverse chronological order under Shapes on this Slide
• Elements can be re-ordered using the Re-order buttons located at the bottom of the Selection and Visibility pane
• Note: The tab order of elements begins at the bottom of the list and tabs upwards.
Format Text
• Use font sizes between 12 and 18 points for body text.
• Use fonts of normal weight, rather than bold or light weight fonts.
• Use standard fonts with clear spacing and easily recognized upper and lower case characters. Sans serif fonts (e.g., Arial, Verdana) may sometimes be easier to read than serif fonts (e.g., Times New Roman, Garamond).
• Avoid large amounts of text set all in caps, italic or underlined.
• Use normal or expanded character spacing, rather than condensed spacing.
More best practices
• Text - Always place text on a plain or solid background, not over an image.
• Colors and contrast - text color should provide enough contrast with background color that people can easily read it.
• Layout - use a standard layout template with text placeholders. This will help with logical reading order.
Outline View
Acrobat PDFMaker
Save as Accessible PDF
PDF Bookmarks
PDF Tags
Tools for Life Advisory Council - http://www.gatfl.gatech.edu/tflwiki/index.php?title=Advisory_Council
Tools for Life AT Network - http://www.gatfl.gatech.edu/network.php
Carolyn PhillipsDirector of Tools for [email protected]
Ben JacobsAccommodations Specialist [email protected]
Liz PersaudTraining, Outreach and Development [email protected]
Martha RustAT Specialist [email protected]
DisclaimerThis presentation is produced by Tools for Life which is a result of the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, as amended in 2004. It is a program of the Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Architecture, AMAC Accessibility Solutions and is funded by grant #H224C030009 of the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), Department of Education. The contents of this presentation were developed under a grant from the Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, Georgia Tech, COA or AMAC and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal government.
We are Here to Help You!