Designing Accessible Documents for Everyone Carolyn Kelley Klinger February 18, 2010 Carolina Chapter, Society for Technical Communication Note: The slides in this presentation are not compliant with Section 508. See the Accessibility Camp DC website at for a compliant version.

Agenda  Best practices for preparing accessible documents  Styles  Tables  Grouping images  Alternate text  Hyperlinks  Creating the PDF  Alternatives to PDF

Best Practices for Creating Accessible Documents 1

The Big Picture  Prepare for accessibility the best you can in your source files.  Test for accessibility before delivering the files.  Follow best practices for document development  Use built-in accessibility tools  Simulate the experience of not being able to follow your document’s visual cues (WAVE toolbar for Firefox, save as Accessible Text in Acrobat and check reading order, etc.)

Setting Up the Source Document  Use template styles for every heading and paragraph  Add alternative text for every image  Use column and/or row headers for tables and add a caption or intro text  Make sure links make sense out of context (no “click here”)

Using Styles Heading 1 Heading 2 Heading 3 Heading 4 FrameMaker MS Word

Adding Alternate Text, Word  Word 2003: Right-click on the object, choose Format > Picture, click on the “Web” tab, and enter a text description.  Word 2007: Right-click the image, choose Size and then the Alt Text tab.

Adding Alternate Text, FrameMaker

Working with Tables  Insert a table to create a tabular structure. Do not use tabs or spaces and do not use Draw Table in Word.  Tables must not use merged cells.  Tables should be described and labeled with a caption where appropriate.  Rows should not break across pages. In Word, do not select the “Allow to break across pages” option.

Writing Useful Hyperlink Anchors  Links should make sense out of context. Avoid “click here.”  Good: Visit the STC WDC events page to register for upcoming professional events.  Good: Visit the STC WDC events page ( shmtl) for more information about upcoming professional events. shmtl  Bad: Click here to download class files.

Other Tips  Keep URLs short and descriptive in text.  Use common fonts such as Calibri, Verdana, Times New Roman, Arial, Tahoma, and Helvetica  Do not convey information only through color  Do not manually create page numbers and TOCs. Use authoring tool functions instead.  Do not use hard returns to cause text to start on a new page. Use page breaks or other pagination features.

Creating the PDF 2

Creating a tagged PDF  In Word, configure the PDFMaker Word 2003 Word 2007

Acrobat PDFMaker: Settings tab

Acrobat PDFMaker: Security tab

Acrobat PDFMaker: Word tab

Acrobat PDFMaker: Bookmarks tab

Save as Accessible PDF (Word 2003)  Word 2003  Select Adobe PDF menu  Select Convert to Adobe PDF option

Save as Accessible PDF (Word 2007)  Word 2007  Select Create PDF from the Create Adobe PDF Group  Save as Adobe PDF from the Office button

Create the PDF in FrameMaker 1.Change printer to Adobe PDF. 2.Select File > Print Book..

Create the PDF in FrameMaker, continued 3.Click the PDF Setup button.

Create the PDF in FrameMaker, continued 4.Click the Tags tab. 5.Click Generate Tagged PDF and click Get Defaults (or select paragraphs to include in the PDF structure). Click Set.

Checking for PDF Accessibility 3

First Steps in Checking for Accessibility  Specify document language (File > Document Properties > Advanced tab)  Use document structure (On Pages panel, select all pages, right-click and select Use Document Structure)  Run the Adobe Full Check (Advanced > Accessibility > Full Check)

Options for Checking PDF Accessibility

Accessibility Checker Result Message Goal Reality

Fixing PDFs for Accessibility 4

Checking Adobe PDF Tags  PDF tags express the structure of the document.

Confirming the Tags are Correct  Characteristics of a properly tagged PDF  The PDF file includes a logical reading order for its content Images are given correct alternate descriptions  Tables are correctly tagged to represent the table structure  Form-fields are authored to promote their utility to screen-readers  Represents text as Unicode to clear up composition irregularities such as soft and hard hyphens (use Acrobat 9 for full Unicode support) Credit:

Using the Detailed Error Report  Acrobat provides a detailed error report  Click an error to go to it in the document  Once there, use Acrobat tools to fix the problem

Touching Up the Reading Order  Touch up the reading order (Advanced > Accessibility > Touchup Reading Order) Click Show Order Panel

Using the TouchUp Reading Order Panel Reading order of a PDF document

Understanding Reading Order Options Credit:

Adding Tags to an Untagged PDF  Adding tags  If you don’t see the numbered boxes in the reading order view, the document is probably not tagged.  To add tags, select Advanced > Accessibility > Add Tags to Document.  This is the quickest way to add tags but the result will not be perfect. You will need to check the tags.

Fixing PDF Tags  Tips for fixing tags  Confirm that each numbered box in the document is properly tagged.  Add alternate text as needed to figures as needed.  Remove nonessential content, such as ornamental page borders, from the logical structure tree as needed.  Note that when you remove the tags (such as by using the Delete Item Structure or Clear Page Structure commands), you cannot undo that action. Save your file often.

Adding Scope to Table Headers  Add scope to table headers  With the TouchUp Reading Order tool open, select a table and then select Table Inspector. Select table cells that should be headers, right- click on a selected cell or cells, and choose Table Cell Properties. After tagging the header cells, header cells are highlighted in red and data cells in gray.

Tagging Artifacts  Tagging artifacts  Artifacts are items that screen readers should ignore.  Identify an artifact in the Order or Tags panels.  In the Order panel, select the element and click the Background button.  On the Tags panel, right-click and select Change Tag to Artifact. Tags Panel

Accessible Alternatives to PDF 5

 Keep in mind that if an accessible HTML version of your document exists in the same location as the PDF, Section 508 allows for the companion PDF not to be accessible.  Convert your PDF to accessible HTML using a tool like Virtual508.com Accessible Wizard  Example of output from virtual508.com Accessible Wizard Example of output

Other Resources  HHS Checklists: and  Adobe Reference Card: nce_card_for_accessible.html nce_card_for_accessible.html    Dona Patrick’s blog!  

 If you want to reuse this presentation, please let me know.  You can find me at:   Thank you!