TIPS FOR CREATING ACCESSIBLE DOCUMENTS IN WORD
TIPS FOR CREATING ACCESSIBLE DOCUMENTS IN WORDBy Robert Lee BeachSTYLES Use “styles” rather than plain “formatting” to design the document. This provides several advantages: The student has a better organized, more usable document.All like elements have consistent formatting.Styles allow for navigational controls both in the Word document and in some other formats such as HTML.Styles can be used to generate document elements such as a table of contents.Styles can be easily modified for the entire document without having to reformat each element of the document to which the style was originally applied.Styles follow the document when you save out to most formats, excluding plain text. Not all formatting settings follow into other file formats such as HTML.You can perform “find and replace” or “find” functions on styles easier than on formatting. To use styles: 1) Press CTRL+SHIFT+S for keyboard command or click the Home button then the Styles button. 2) In the list of styles, click the one you want. Some styles are paragraph level styles and some are character level styles. Paragraph level styles are indicated by a P in front of the name in the styles list. Character level styles are indicated by an A in front of the name in the styles list. To apply paragraph level styles (such as the Title and Heading styles), you do not need to select any text. Simply click somewhere in the paragraph you want to apply the style to, then apply the style. To apply character level styles (such as Strong and emphasis), you must select the text (characters) you want the style applied to, then apply the style. To create a table of contents from the heading styles: 1) Position your cursor where you want the table of contents to appear. 2) Press ALT+S then T for keyboard command, or click Reference on the ribbon, then click the Table of Contents button. 3) Select either of the options that will build the table of contents based on the headings you used. TABLES Tables can be used for document layout, but this is not the best use of tables. You should really use tables for aligning related data. Tables should be “inserted” and not “drawn” as drawn tables will not be accessible to assistive technologies nor will they always transfer out to other formats correctly. To create a table: 1) Position your cursor where you want the table to be. 2) Press ALT+N then T, or click the Insert ribbon, then click the Table button. 3) Select the table with the number of columns and rows that you want. NOTE--the first number is columns and the second number is rows, alphabetical. If the correct number of columns and rows is not shown for the table you need, select “Insert Table” and you can specify the number you need. PICTURES AND GRAPHICS It is fine to use pictures and graphics in your documents as far as disabilities are concerned. It is rather easy to make them accessible. There are a couple of things to decide: 1) Is the graphic informative or decorative? 2) If informative, how much information is also included in the text associated with the graphic? Adding captions: If a graphic is informative, it should have a caption with it. This not only makes it more accessible to students with disabilities, but it makes it clearer for all students. To add the caption to a graphic in your document, do the following. 1) Right click on the graphic. 2) Click “Add caption”. 3) Type in the caption name that you want. This should be descriptive of the graphic, but very short. For example, “Figure 1-2, healthy tree.” 4) Click the OK button. Adding alternate text: Every graphic you use should have some type of alternate text attached to it, whether it be an informative graphic or a decorative graphic. What alt text you attach depends on the purpose of the graphic. If the graphic is decorative, then something very simple such as, “KCKCC logo” will be sufficient. A full description of a decorative graphic is not necessary, but some identifying text should be there. If text is not added, then usually the path and name of the graphic file is put in the alt text field, and this is not helpful at all. If the graphic is informative, then the alt text needs to provide the relevant information, in a short but sweet manner. The alt text field can hold up to 255 characters. If a longer description is needed, then you should consider including the description of the graphic as part of the text either just after or just before the graphic, with a short alt text still added. To add the alternate text to a graphic, follow the steps below. 1) Right click on the graphic. 2) Select the “Format Picture” option. 3) You should have a list of tabs. Select Alt Text. 4) You have two fields, title and description. Use the description field. LINKS If you are including links in your documents, please make sure those links make sense when read without the surrounding text. For example, if the statement is, “Click here to watch the video,” often only the text, “Click here” is linked. When moving through the page with a screen reader, this text doesn’t make sense. It would be better to link the text, “watch the video,” or maybe even the entire statement. TEXT BOXES Text boxes are not a good idea for accessibility. Text-to-speech technologies cannot access the information in text boxes. Therefore, students who are visually impaired or have reading disabilities that require auditory feedback of your materials will not be able to read the information you place in text boxes. If there is a particular look that you wish to add to a section of text, create a style that has the appearance you want rather than using a text box. ................
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