VA Ahead – Kara Zirkle, IT Accessibility Coordinator,

George Mason University

Creating Accessible Documents

Why documents should be made accessible

Types of documents How to create accessible documentsBuilt-In technology to help test documents for

accessibilityDEMOThird Party SolutionsQuestions

What will be covered:

Law Applies to Mandates

Section 504

Federal, State and Local government, Educational agencies, Companies (Corporate – Private), any facility receiving Federal funds

No otherwise qualified individual with a disability shall, solely by reason of his/ her disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity of a public entity.

Section 508

Federal entities and States that have adopted similar regulations

Requires that any electronic and information technology (EIT) procured, developed, used or maintained by Federal agencies must be accessible to employees and members of the public with disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency. Section 508 was enacted to: 1) eliminate barriers in information technology, 2) make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and 3) encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals.

Rehabilitation Act

Cliché, but correct answer: Because it’s the law!! ADA/Section 508 Helps Mason comply with Federal, State, and Local

government standards (i.e., Penn State, Arizona State, Google Apps for Education)

Penn State (settled last week) – library’s online database, Angel LMS, departmental websites, “smart” podiums, ATMs

Arizona State (settled Jan. 2010) – Kindle Reader pilot Google (initiated March 2011) Just recently

DOJ under ADA created a settlement agreement with Fairfax County, VA to ensure accessibility of both physical and online material.

Other reasons: Reaches a wider audience (i.e., captioning, older users, ESL) Search engines optimization favors accessible websites Mobile phone access

Why documents should be made accessible

Common Mason Contract Language

As a condition of accepting this Agreement, *XX-Company-XX* agrees to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d), as amended, the Information Technology Access Act, (§§2.2-3500 through 2.2-3504 of the Code of Virginia), and all other regulations promulgated under Title II of The American with Disabilities Act which are applicable to all benefits, services, programs, and activities provided by or on behalf of the University pursuant to this Agreement.  If requested, the Contractor must provide a detailed explanation of how compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act is achieved and a validation of concept demonstration.

Visual: described graphics or video; well marked-up tables or frames; keyboard support, screen reader compatibility;

Hearing: captioning for audio, supplemental illustration;

Physical, Speech: keyboard or single-switch support; alternatives for speech input on voice portals;

Cognitive, Neurological: consistent navigation, tab order, appropriate language

level; illustration; no flickering or strobing designs.

Examples of design requirements for people with different kinds of disabilities include:

Increasing number of distance education courses…

Number of electronic documents posted on websites are not accessible E.g., PDFs scanned with no tags E.g., Word documents designed without

styles E.g., forms are inaccessible

Document Accessibility

Accessible TextTo qualify to receive material in alternative formats,

students, staff and faculty must have a documented “print” related disability. (Referrals are made by our Office of Disability Services and our ADA Coordinator.)

Learning disabilities related to reading

Visual impairments Some mobility

impairments Some other

cognitive impairments

The Web has become a key resource for: classroom education, distance learning; job searching, workplace interaction;civic participation, government services;news, information, commerce, entertainment

It is displacing traditional sources of information and interactionschools, libraries, print materials, discourse of the

workplace;some of the traditional resources were accessible; some not.

An accessible Web means unprecedented access to information for people with disabilities.

Impacts of the web on accessibility

Why documents should be made accessibleTypes of documents How to create accessible documentsBuilt-In technology to help test documents for

accessibilityDEMOThird Party SolutionsQuestions

What will be covered:

Adobe Reader and Acrobat ProfessionalAdobe LiveCycle DesignerMicrosoft Office

WordPowerPoint

Types of Documents

There are some helpful accessibility features in the free Adobe PDF reader. For example, any PDF file open in Adobe reader can be read aloud with the "Read  Out Loud" option. 

Under the 'View' menu, select 'Read Out Loud', then 'Activate Read Outloud‘.

The Read Out Loud feature of Adobe Reader can be accessed with Keyboard Commands, as listed below.

  Activate Read Out Loud:  Shift + Ctrl + Y Read This Page Only:  Shift + Ctrl + V Read To End of Document:  Shift + Ctrl + B Pause/Resume:  Shift + Ctrl + C Stop:  Shift + Ctrl + E

Adobe Reader Accessibility Features

Features for making PDF files accessible for readingAbility to add text to scanned pages to improve

accessibilityTools for creating accessible PDF formsConversion of untagged to tagged PDF filesTools for editing reading order and document

structureSecurity setting that allows screen readers to

access text while preventing users from copying, printing, editing, and extracting text

Action Wizard to make PDF Accessible

Adobe Acrobat Professional

Where to find accessibility in Adobe X

Accessibility PalettesSupport for Screen ReadersAdding Structural Navigation to FormsTabbing Order for Accessible FormsAccessible Form PropertiesAccessibility of Imported ContentAccessibility for Authors

http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/livecycle/overview.html

Adobe LiveCycle Designer

How to include Accessibility in LiveCycle Designer

Before starting any document, Right click, scroll to Palettes and select Accessibility. This will continue to show up throughout the document.

When choosing a text box selection look to the far right of the screen to accessibility. Select “Caption” to tag the text box name.

Including Accessibility in LiveCycle

You can check the tab/reading order and change it as needed.

Livecycle allows designers to specify the embedding of accessibility information within files that are saved in PDF.

WordAdd alt text to images and objectsSpecify column headers in tablesUse styles in long documentsUse short titles in headingsEnsure all heading styles are in the correct orderUse hyperlink text that is meaningfulUse simple table structureAvoid using blank cells for formattingStructure layout tables for easy navigationAvoid using repeated blank charactersAvoid using floating objectsAvoid image watermarks Include closed captions for any audio

Microsoft Office 2010

Document layout Keep lots of white space between columns of text this help’s people with

low vision and users of screen reading software. People with sensory or cognitive disabilities will benefit from documents

with lots of white space. Make hyperlinks descriptive. Don’t use Click here or More. Format documents with high contrast. Black text on white provides the

highest contrast. Make font sizes 12 point or larger. Use fonts consistently. Use sans-serif fonts such as Verdana, Arial or

Helvetica. Avoid decorative or serif fonts such as Brush Script. Use bulleted or numbered lists.

Document structure Add structure to a Word document with heading styles. Heading 1 comes

before Heading 2 then Heading 3 and so forth. Don’t skip heading levels. In other words, don’t jump from Heading 1 to a

Heading 3. Change the heading styles to fit your document rather than skip a heading

level because you don’t like the preset appearance.

Word Document Accessibility

Graphics and images Avoid lots of graphics on one page. A simple page is easier to read. If the document contains graphic elements such as images, diagrams or charts, be

sure to convey information about those graphics in the text of the document. Add descriptive text to images known as "alt text". Also add a caption below the

image. Use text to convey information. Do not use WordArt or create graphics that contain

text. Do not convey information or directions with color exclusively. “Press the red button.” Avoid flashing or blinking elements. Flashing or blinking can cause seizures in people

with photosensitive epilepsy. If you must include animated text then warn your readers so they can avoid it and

supply the information in another format such as plain text.

Tables Screen readers and Braille displays read tables row by row across the columns which

may not make sense to someone using a screen reader or Braille display. When possible, use lists to convey information.

HTML provides techniques to code tables that screen readers and Braille displays can read allowing the information to be accessible.

Indicate the Heading Row on data tables in Microsoft Word.

Word Document Accessibility

PowerPointAdd alternative text to images and objectsSpecify column header information in tablesEnsure that all slides have unique titlesUse hyperlink text that is meaningfulUse simple table structureAvoid using blank cells for formattingInclude closed captions for any audio or videoEnsure that the reading order of each slide is

logicalIncrease visibility for colorblind viewers

Microsoft Office 2010

Slide Layout PowerPoint provides many pre-defined slide layouts. It is best to use these layouts

for slide creation so that the slide content is accessible to someone using assistive technology or if you plan to convert the presentation to HTML or a PDF document.

One method for ensuring that the presentation has the right structure is start with a blank presentation and build slides using the Outline view. With this approach each slide will use the correct slide layout and will include a slide title. This is especially important for proper text flow.

Text Boxes and Images Avoid using Text Boxes on slides as they appear as graphic elements to assistive

technology software and the content within them may not be accessible. Text Boxes also appear as graphic elements when the presentation is converted to HTML or PDF using specialized conversion tools.

When images are placed in a presentation you need to include a description of the image so that someone using assistive technology can understand what the image is. This descriptive text known as "alt text" is retained if the document is converted to HTML or PDF. Also adding a caption below the image will help all users understand the purpose of the image.

PowerPoint Document Accessibility

Tables and ChartsTables may be used in PowerPoint slides but their use should

be limited to the presentation of data as opposed to slide layout. Data tables can be inserted using the slide layout that contains a table or by selecting Table from the Insert menu.

Charts and graphs are often used on a presentation slide. Just like tables, charts or graphs should be added using the appropriate slide layout or by selecting Chart from the Insert menu.

Audio If you include audio in the presentation then you must

include an area at the bottom of each slide for text captions. The captions must be synchronized with the audio.

PowerPoint Document Accessibility

Why documents should be made accessibleTypes of documents How to create accessible documentsBuilt-In technology to help test

documents for accessibilityDEMOThird Party SolutionsQuestions

What will be covered:

When you go to file, you’ll see on the left side a “Check for Issues” and when selecting that you’ll find “Check Accessibility”

http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/office2010/default.aspx

Microsoft Built-In Accessibility Checker

How to use the Built –in Accessibility Checker to make sure your document is accessible.

Example of a Bad Document

Why documents should be made accessibleTypes of documents How to create accessible documentsBuilt-In technology to help test documents for

accessibilityDEMOThird Party SolutionsQuestions

What will be covered:

PDF Accessibility Wizard (PAW) Plug-in installs directly into MS Office 2007

and 2010 Allows document creators to convert a

scanned PDF document into a tagged, accessible PDF document

Accessible Wizard for MS Office Plug-in installs directly into any MS Office

app (2007 - i.e., Word, PPT) Walks document creator through issues

within document and how to make them accessible

Third Party Solutions

Demonstration of PAW

Web and Software Accessibility and other E&IT: Kara Zirkle, IT Accessibility Coordinator, phone:

703-993-9815 or kzirkle1@gmu.edu

http://webaccessibility.gmu.edu

George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MSN 6A11,

Aquia Building, Room 238, Fairfax, VA 22030 Phone: 703-993-4329 Fax: 703-993-4743 ati@gmu.edu Website: http://ati.gmu.edu

Questions