Making Online Documents
Accessible to Everyone
Terrill Thompson
Technology Accessibility Consultant
Terrill.Thompson@wwu.edu
Introduction to Physics Course Syllabus Textbook Our sole text for this course will be Introduction to
Example: Text with no structure
Physics, Second Edition, authored by the instructor. Course Objectives to offer students exposure to
basic principles of Physics to provide students with rich, thought-provoking discussions during lecture
sessions to provide students with experiential learning opportunities during laboratory sessions. Class
Schedule Week Topic Reading Assignment 1 Course Introduction Chapter 1 2 Inertia, equilibrium,
kinematics Chapters 2-3 3 Newton’s laws, vectors, momentum, energy Chapters 4-7 4 Matter, elasticity,
scaling Chapters 8-10 5 Wave kinematics, sound, electricity, magnetism, induction Chapter 11-15 6
Light, reflection and refraction, emission Chapters 15-18 7 Review, final exam Grades Grades will be
assigned on a ten point scale (90 to 100 is an A, 80 to 89 is a B, etc.). Homework, exams, and projects
will be weighted as follows: Homework Exams Projects 1 2 Final 1 2 Final 15% 15% 15% 20% 10% 10%
15% Ce programme es également disponible en français sur demande.
Example: Syllabus with structure
An accessible document has...
•
•
•
•
•
Headings that form an outline
Lists that really are lists
Alternate text on images
Logical read order
Maybe a few other things, depending on the
doc
The most accessible document formats
(in approximate order)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
HTML (web pages)
ePub3 (for books)
PDF
Word
PowerPoint
Email/Plain text
NOTE: Some users may dispute this order, based on their familiarity and comfort.
Adobe PDF
• Three general types:
– Image
– Document with no underlying structure
– Tagged, well-structured document
How do I create a tagged,
well-structured PDF?
Use a tool that supports Tagged PDF
And maybe a few others:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/2011AprJun/0061.html
Follow a few basic rules
1. Use heading styles
2. Use other built-in structural features
(lists, tables)
3. Add alternate text to images
4. Define language, especially if document
contains foreign language content
5. Save/Export to a tagged PDF
Didn’t follow these steps?
No problem!
PDF accessibility can be
repaired in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Resources
• Web Tech Accessibility How-To
http://wwu.edu/webtech/webstandards/detai
ls.shtml
• UW PDF Accessibility Workflow
http://uw.edu/accessibility/pdf