Creating well structured documents – easy for authors and accessible for users Andrew Downie Project Officer, Adaptive Technologies TAFE eHub

Introduction Correct structure and accessibility need not be hard Will begin with Microsoft Word Relevant to other formats Will address the sometimes vexed issue of alternate text Will touch on a look at easily avoided website barriers if time Please clarify as we go My role .Available to share info and ideas .Correct document structure fundamental to accessibility. Ask about backgrouns.

Benefits of structured documents Consistent appearance throughout document And between documents Saves much time and effort: When creating the document When editing later Allows easy creation of: Accessible PDF files DAISY and epub books Hardcopy Braille material XML files Show sample_structured (ctrl-1) and sample_unstructured (ctrl-2) first Some people hard to convince of ease

Hierarchical headings A level 2 heading follows a level 1 A level 3 heading follows a level 2 etc Do not follow a level 1 with a level 3 etc MS Word Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl-alt-1 for level 1 heading Ctrl-alt-2 for level 2 heading Ctrl-alt-3 for level 3 heading Shift-ctrl-n for normal style

Making paragraphs look just so Can use right click or Application Key Paragraph adjust space before and after and indent Do not use multiple Enter key presses Font adjust font size, style and colour Demo with sample-structured (ctrl-1)

Modifying and creating styles Right click the paragraph or use Application Key Select Styles Select Update [style name] to match selection to revise a style That will update all instances of the style (magic) Save selection as a new quick style Easy way to create a new style Demonstrate updating styles with sample-structured (ctrl-1)

More about styles Open Styles pane (press ctrl-shift-s or use Ribbon) Select a style Modify a style for this or all documents Open Styles Task Pane (alt-ctrl-shift-s) Choose which styles are offered and the order Select from the list of available styles

Creating tables Use tables for displaying tabular data Create table from Insert tab of Ribbon Try not to create non-uniform tables Under Properties in Layout tab of Ribbon Uncheck ‘Allow Rows to Break Across Pages’ Check ‘Repeat as Header Row at Top of Each Page’ Autofit to content is very helpful Add table to sample-structured (ctrl-1)

Inserting images Select the image from Illustration Group in the Insert tab of the Ribbon Provide meaningful alternative text: Right click the image Arrow down to ‘Size’ or ‘Format Picture’ in Word 2007 or 2010 respectively Under alternative text, replace filename with meaningful text Alternative text should be meaningful in the context of surrounding text Press Enter and Add shed to sample-structured (ctrl-1)

Adding a caption to an image To add a caption: Right click image Arrow down to Insert caption and press Enter Write the caption, select placement etc

Converting to a PDF If Acrobat is installed: Select Acrobat from Word Ribbon Select create PDF From the Word Save As dialog, can save as PDF Be sure to go into Options the first time to create tagged PDF Docx files with images will put the image tag at the top of the PDF To avoid correcting the PDF, save as doc Convert myffy.doc (ctrl-3) (ctrl-3)

Creating DAISY books What is DAISY? Text, audio and graphics can be synchronised Offers powerful and flexible navigation Commercial and free creation tools available Now available to the masses Commercial and free reading options Free Save as DAISY - Microsoft Word Add-in Show AMIS (ctrl-6) and Stream if time

Writing meaningful alternative text Ideally, alt text conveys the same meaning as the image That can sometimes be a challenge Wording depends on the context in which the image is used Describe the scene, rather than the image If the image is a metaphor, explain it What is an appropriate length for alt text? While succinct, as long as necessary When should an image not include alt text? Myffy.docx (ctrl-4) and Pompei (ctrl-5) The reconstruction drawing shows

A brief look at website issues Making websites accessible need not be onerous Use a standards-based approach Use tools that produce accessible material Plan for universal access Separate appearance from content Ask yourself: Who is my audience?

The angst of accessibility James Edwards http://blogs.sitepoint.com/the-angst-of-accessibility/ “Catering for accessibility means spending extra time and effort on the needs of a minority...” Highly dependent on the approach taken Deathshadow suggested five don’ts: Fixed font sizes; Images for text...; Non-semantic markup; Colour contrasts below norms; Flash for text and navigation

Now for some ‘do’s’ HTML forms to have either: Explicitly associated labels or Title attributes Data tables to be: No more complex than necessary; and Include sufficient markup Images to have meaningful alt text Especially important for image links Ajay’s form (ctrl-7) Tables_sample (ctrl-8)

Some website accessibility resources OptionKeys Based on WCAG version 1 Gives rationale and coding examples http://www.cli.nsw.edu.au/optionkeys W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Web Content Accessibility Guidelines http://www.w3c.org/wai Ajay’s form (ctrl-7) Tables_sample (ctrl-8)

Some website accessibility resources (cont) WebAIM WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool and much more http://www.webaim.org Color Contrast Checker http://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/ Web Accessibility Checker for IE http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html

Contacting Andrew Phone: (02) 9715-8347 Email: andrew.downie@det.nsw.edu.au