WORD DOCUMENT INFO MANUAL

It’s best to think about accessibility from the start of a project. Accessible Word document creation workflow

WORD DOCUMENT INFO MANUAL

Note that accessibility for each and every user cannot be guaranteed, however, documents that pass the Accessibility Checker and the manual testing (described later) will certainly be more accessible and easy to use. In this document the Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker has been used as a benchmark. Ensuring that your documents pass the tests of this Accessibility Checker is generally sufficient to ensure that people with different disabilities will not have any major difficulty in using the content. Microsoft has provided an accessibility checker within its Office applications. colour, alignment but also through use of appropriate built-in styles. Meaning of different text elements should be conveyed not only through visual presentation e.g. Providing an adaptable format that is marked-up semantically – It should be possible for readers to adapt the visual presentation of the document to suit their reading needs.

Provision of text descriptions for graphical content such as pictures, flow charts and maps so that visually impaired readers do not miss out on important aspects of understanding the document.

should have been created using the best practices instead of customized methods.

Creating a structured and navigable document – It should be possible for all readers to easily identify and move to any position in the document such as a Chapter or sub-section.The accessibility guidelines and best practices for creation of digital documents are aimed at achieving the following objectives: Adherence to any one of these ensures that the documents will be usable by everyone including persons with disabilities without any significant barriers. Some of the most adopted standards are: WCAG, Section 508, EPUB Accessibility and PDF/UA. There are globally accepted standards and best practices for creating accessible digital content.

Thankfully you don’t have to think about the needs of each disability neither you have to test your products with all the assistive technologies. Accessibility StandardsĬatering to the needs of persons with diverse needs may seem very daunting to the creators of content. In addition to being the right thing to do, Digital accessibility is also a regulatory requirement as per many international and domestic conventions/laws. The World Health Organization estimates that about 15% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability, therefore a significant number of people are likely to be denied the right to information if the content is not in a format which they can adapt as per their own needs for reading. If you don’t consider this variety while creating the content, millions of people will find it hard or impossible to use your creations. You need to keep in mind that content created by you will be consumed by people in different ways. Some of your readers may be using the keyboard to navigate through your documents while others may be using touch, voice commands, a modified mouse, head stylus or even eye tracking technology. Some of them may want to listen to the document using text-to-speech software, or read it on an electronic braille display, while others may want to magnify the text and change the foreground and background colour to suit their visual disability. People with disabilities use digital documents in different ways. Many documents contain hidden obstacles that can sometimes deny or restrict access to users with disabilities particularly persons with blindness, low vision, colour blindness, reading disabilities and certain mobility impairments. Persons with disabilities may be facing difficulties in reading documents created by you.

The source tutorials and videos are located on the Microsoft website. This document makes use of resources created by Microsoft to explain the Office Accessibility Checker tool. Using the information given here (together with the accompanying videos and web resources) you should be able to create digital documents that are easy to use for everyone, including persons with disabilities, and compliant to accessibility standards. This document is intended to be a self-learning resource to help you create accessible documents. Creating accessible Word documents Introduction

Word document info