VA Ahead – Kara Zirkle, IT Accessibility Coordinator,
George Mason University
 Why documents should be made accessible
 Types of documents
 How to create accessible documents
 Built-In technology to help test documents for
accessibility
 DEMO
 Third Party Solutions
 Questions
Rehabilitation Act
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.
 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
As a condition of accepting this Agreement, *XX-CompanyXX* 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.
 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
To 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 interaction
 schools, 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.
 Why documents should be made accessible
 Types of documents
 How to create accessible documents
 Built-In technology to help test documents for
accessibility
 DEMO
 Third Party Solutions
 Questions
 Adobe Reader and Acrobat Professional
 Adobe LiveCycle Designer
 Microsoft Office
 Word
 PowerPoint
 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.
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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
Features for making PDF files accessible for reading
 Ability to add text to scanned pages to improve
accessibility
 Tools for creating accessible PDF forms
 Conversion of untagged to tagged PDF files
 Tools for editing reading order and document
structure
 Security setting that allows screen readers to access
text while preventing users from copying, printing,
editing, and extracting text
 Action Wizard to make PDF Accessible
 Accessibility Palettes
 Support for Screen Readers
 Adding Structural Navigation to Forms
 Tabbing Order for Accessible Forms
 Accessible Form Properties
 Accessibility of Imported Content
 Accessibility for Authors
http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/livecycle/
overview.html
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.
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.
 Word
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Add alt text to images and objects
Specify column headers in tables
Use styles in long documents
Use short titles in headings
Ensure all heading styles are in the correct order
Use hyperlink text that is meaningful
Use simple table structure
Avoid using blank cells for formatting
Structure layout tables for easy navigation
Avoid using repeated blank characters
Avoid using floating objects
Avoid image watermarks
Include closed captions for any audio
Document layout
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Keep lots of white space between columns of text this help’s people with low vision and
users of screen reading software.
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People with sensory or cognitive disabilities will benefit from documents with lots of
white space.
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Make hyperlinks descriptive. Don’t use Click here or More.
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Format documents with high contrast. Black text on white provides the highest contrast.
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Make font sizes 12 point or larger.
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Use fonts consistently. Use sans-serif fonts such as Verdana, Arial or Helvetica. Avoid
decorative or serif fonts such as Brush Script.
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Use bulleted or numbered lists.
Document structure
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Add structure to a Word document with heading styles. Heading 1 comes before Heading
2 then Heading 3 and so forth.
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Don’t skip heading levels. In other words, don’t jump from Heading 1 to a Heading 3.
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Change the heading styles to fit your document rather than skip a heading level because
you don’t like the preset appearance.
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.
 PowerPoint
 Add alternative text to images and objects
 Specify column header information in tables
 Ensure that all slides have unique titles
 Use hyperlink text that is meaningful
 Use simple table structure
 Avoid using blank cells for formatting
 Include closed captions for any audio or video
 Ensure that the reading order of each slide is logical
 Increase visibility for colorblind viewers
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.
Tables and Charts
 Tables 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.
 Why documents should be made accessible
 Types of documents
 How to create accessible documents
 Built-In technology to help test documents for
accessibility
 DEMO
 Third Party Solutions
 Questions
 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
 How to use the Built –in Accessibility Checker to make
sure your document is accessible.
 Why documents should be made accessible
 Types of documents
 How to create accessible documents
 Built-In technology to help test documents for
accessibility
 DEMO
 Third Party Solutions
 Questions
 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
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