Creating Accessible Word Documents Peter Mosinskis Supervisor of Web Services CSU Channel Islands Rev

Overview Why Accessible? Creating Accessible Word documents Word vs. HTML vs. PDF

Why Make Information Accessible? “Access for all” Forward-thinking Scalable Manage Risk

What Kinds of Disabilities? Visual (blindness, low vision, color-blindness) Hearing (deafness, hard of hearing) Physical/Motor (weakness, muscle control, paralysis) Cognitive/Neurological (dyslexia, intellectual or memory impairments) Speech (difficulty producing speech) Multiple Disabilities (deaf and blind)

Examples of Assistive Technology Input Devices Joysticks and Trackballs Mouth Sticks and Head Wands On-Screen Keyboards and Touch Screens Speech or Voice Recognition Software

Examples of Assistive Technology Output Devices Screen Readers Text-to-Speech Synthesizers Screen Magnification Refreshable Braille Display Light signalers (to replace audio alerts)

General Office Configuration

Prompt for File Properties Go to “Tools” menu Choose “Options” Go to “Save” tab Check “Prompt for document properties” checkbox Do this for every Office application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) Excel: “General” tab, “Prompt for Workbook Properties” PowerPoint: Save tab, “Prompt for File Properties”

Accessibility and Microsoft Word Golden Rule: Keep It Simple and Well-Structured

7 Steps to Accessible Word Documents 1. Add text description to graphics and images 2. Use color correctly 3. Use Styles to add structure 4. Use Tables instead of tabs 5. Let Word create Bullets and Numbering 6. Provide a Table of Contents for long documents 7. Add document metadata

Text Description of Graphics and Images Text description of non-text elements (such as images or graphics) Right-click on an object/image Choose “Format Picture” Choose “Web” tab Enter text description Click “OK”

Text Description of Graphics and Images (cont.) Once an image has “Alternative Text” in MS Word, the image can be copied & pasted into other MS Office applications (PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) and the alternative text will follow the image.

How would you describe this? Example Figure 1

Tips First ask “who should describe this?” Are you qualified to come up with a description? If not, contact the originator of the information to provide a written description. Short description “G-protein coupled receptor” Long Description “The GPCR is pictured here spanning a cell membrane and binding a neurotransmitter molecule.” Finally ask, “is this good enough for the intended audience?”

How would you describe this? Example Figure 2

Tips Ask “Who should describe this?” Write a Short Description “Diagram of the conversion from embryo to stem cell” Write Long Description Should at least contain all of the text in the chart Should go in body text, before or directly after the diagram Ask, “is this good enough for the intended audience?”, if not, revise it.

How to Describe Things How to Create Descriptive Text criptionTutorial.htm criptionTutorial.htm Describing Fine Art e/anable.html e/anable.html Describing Audio principles.html principles.html

Use color correctly Never depend on color alone to convey your content: you can use color, but not to define sole source of information or meaning WRONG: “See the red section for additional information” CORRECT: “See the section titled ‘More Info’ for additional information”

Use color correctly (cont.) Use good color contrast between background color and text Highest contrast: black text on white background To change font color: Highlight text Click on the “Font Color” icon Choose “Automatic”

Using Styles to Create a Document Structure Every document should be well-structured using these 4 structural elements: Headings Paragraphs Lists Tables

Styles and Document Structure Use Styles to add structure to your document Styles only apply to paragraphs, not individual words Benefit of Styles Change your heading, paragraph and list formatting throughout your entire document with ease Create meaningful document sections that can be used by assistive technology

Applying Styles To A Document To apply a style: Highlight the text OR simply position your cursor in the paragraph to which you want to apply the style Click on the “Styles” dropdown, and choose the appropriate style

Rules for Applying Styles Do apply styles in descending numerical order For example, Heading 1 (H1), then Heading 2 (H2) Don’t skip styles Do not apply Heading 1 (H1) and then Heading 3 (H3). Once you have used a particular style, you may return to using that same style Example: H1, then H2, then H2, then H1, then H2, then H3 Do use common sense and logic when applying styles

Neat Tricks for Styled Documents Change the look of a heading throughout your document Go to the “Format” menu, choose “Styles and Formatting” Click on a style, and choose “Modify…” Change style formatting (font, size, alignment, color, style) Check the “Automatically update” checkbox Click OK

Modify Style dialog box

About Writing Style Keep it simple: use clearest and simplest language appropriate for a document’s content. Divide content into “chunks” – manageable sections White space: leave plenty of it, let it breathe! Explain abbreviations and acronyms!

Using Tables for Tabular Data Use tables to format tabular data, not tabs Tables export nicely to HTML/PDF Tabs create scrambled layouts Provide a brief summary of any data tables before the table appears in the document. Provide a detailed written description of complex table content.

Identify Table Row and Column Headings Identify row and column headers in data tables Screen readers and Braille displays read row-by-row across table columns

Identify Table Row and Column Headings Set “Heading Rows Repeat” Highlight heading row Choose “Table” menu Choose “Heading Rows Repeat”

Use Appropriate Font Formatting Font sizes should be 10 point or larger Use standard typefaces Arial/Helvetica (basic sans serif) Times/Times New Roman (basic serif) Avoid typefaces such as Use no more than 2 font families per document

Use Appropriate Font Formatting Use bold and italic styles judiciously Rule of thumb: no more than 2 sentences in a row in any paragraph Avoid using “underline” text altogether Too easily confused with links

Create Bullets and Numbered Lists To create bullets Highlight text Choose “Bullets” icon To create numbers Highlight text choose “Numbering” icon

Provide a Table of Contents Table of Contents (TOC) provides a good overview of a document’s structure, especially for long documents To create a TOC: Go to the “Insert” menu, choose “Reference” Select “Index and Tables”

Provide a Table of Contents Select the “Table of Contents” tab Click “OK” to finish

Provide a Table of Contents What it looks like when complete:

Provide a Table of Contents (TOC) To update page numbering in TOC: Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) on the Table of Contents Choose “Update Field” Select “Update Entire Table” and click “OK”

Add document metadata Go to File menu Choose Properties… Enter in a descriptive, accurate title (most important) Add other metadata as desired Click OK Save your document

Document metadata hint Put your document title in the first line of any Word document That line will be pulled into the “Title” metadata field That line will also become the file name Caveats: can’t have any special characters or punctuation (no -, ?, *, etc.)

Gotchas Don’t use text boxes They are not as flexible They may be inaccessible to assistive technology when left in Word format Use tables for layout instead Use columns as desired Works fine in native Word format You may need to adjust reading order in PDF

Choosing the Right Format HTML, MS Office, or PDF?

HTML Pros & Cons Pros Can view with web browser Best support of assistive technology Most accessible solution when done correctly Can partially automate compliance checking Can edit using MS Word Cons Requires working knowledge of HTML or HTML editing software

MS Office Pros & Cons Pros Prolific and familiar Good for collaboration Fairly accessible when done correctly Cons Different navigation via assistive technology Requires users to install MS Office (or reader) on their computer MS Office is not cheap/free (although readers are) Not everyone has MS Office version Can’t automate compliance checks

PDF Pros & Cons Pros Reader is free Very accessible when done correctly Similar support of assistive technology as HTML Maintains Cons Requires users to install PDF reader on their computer Not easily editable by others Must be generated by a source document (Word, InDesign, etc.) Can’t automate compliance checks Complex documents can only be made accessible with difficulty

Accessibility Spectrum HTMLPDFMS Office MORE ACCESSIBLE

Best Strategy Use HTML whenever possible, especially when building content for web sites Use PDF when it’s important to preserve print formatting & distribute to widest audience; acceptable for the web Use MS Office for collaborative projects; avoid posting on the web

Either Way… Accessibility compliance can’t be fully automated Some manual checking will always be required Some manual repair of HTML will almost always be required MS Office and Acrobat don’t generate HTML perfectly Complex = difficult to make accessible

Saving Word as HTML

How to Save Word as HTML 1. Go to “File” menu 2. Choose “Save as Web Page…”

How to Save Word as HTML (cont.) 3. Set “Save as type” to “Web Page, Filtered” 4. Name the file 5. Click “Save” button

HTML Challenges Images must accompany page Images are not embedded in HTML like they are in Word Is printability important? Much less control over print output in HTML

Accessibility and Adobe Acrobat Golden Rule: Garbage In, Garbage Out

Acrobat & PDF Overview Portable Document Format (PDF) Open standard developed by Adobe Adobe provides free reader for PDF files (Acrobat Reader)

Garbage In = Garbage Out Your PDF will only be as good as the structure & layout of your source document Accessible Word document = Accessible PDF file made from Word document = Accessible web page

Tools You’ll Need Acrobat Professional 7.0 “Reader” version will not create & check PDF files Earlier “Pro” versions have limited accessibility check & fix tools Adobe InDesign CS2 (optional) Recommended for large-scale print-to-PDF workflows, or complex layouts Mac OSX PDF Generator (not recommended) Doesn’t generate tagged PDF

Creating PDF from Microsoft Office Documents Start with well-marked-up Office documents Markup your content using Styles for Headings and Paragraphs Ensure images have text descriptions Ensure good color contrast Use standard fonts Keep the layout simple (watch out for text boxes!)

Creating PDF from Microsoft Office Documents Use the PDFMaker plug-in for Office Adds the necessary tags for screen readers

Summary Provide information in a second format Describe complex information Keep it organized and well-structured Keep it as simple as possible Keep users in mind

Other Related Workshops Creating Accessible PDFs I Creating Accessible PDF II (Forms) Web Accessibility I Web Accessibility II Creating Accessible PowerPoint

Resources CSUCI Web Accessibility – Georgia Tech Access E-Learning modules: Section508.gov – WebAIM – Microsoft Accessibility – CATS Listserv – subscribe at

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