Accessible Digital Office Document Project:
Overview
Version: Dec. 2010
Abstract
The Accessible Digital Office Documents (ADOD) Project is an undertaking to provide guidance on the
accessibility of office documents, office document formats and office applications. ADOD provides both
an “ADOD Assessment Framework” and a suite of practical easy-to-use support documents that are
intended to help users, purchasers and policy makers use and make decisions about office applications.
Currently, ADOD is based primarily on the WCAG 2.0 and ATAG 1.0 Recommendations of the W3C.
Table of Contents
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1
Scope ............................................................................................................................................................. 2
Relationship between ADOD and WCAG 2.0/ATAG 1.0 ........................................................................... 3
ADOD Supporting Documents .................................................................................................................. 4
Conformance............................................................................................................................................. 5
Glossary of ADOD-Specific Terms ................................................................................................................. 5
References .................................................................................................................................................... 6
W3C Recommendations: .......................................................................................................................... 6
Other Resources Consulted: ..................................................................................................................... 6
Acknowledgments......................................................................................................................................... 8
Introduction
Digital office documents (or simply “office documents”), whether they are produced by “traditional”
desktop office applications (e.g., Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect, OpenOffice, Apple iWork, etc.) or
web-based applications (e.g., Google Docs, Microsoft “Office Web Apps”, etc.) remain a critical means of
communication in domains as diverse as commerce, education, civic engagement and public
governance. This has been generally positive for accessibility because digital documents, unlike their
printed counterparts, have the potential to be accessible to the millions of individuals globally who face
barriers to using print. This includes individuals who are blind, have compromised vision, have dyslexia,
cannot turn pages or handle paper due to motor restrictions, or who face cognitive access or literacy
barriers.
Unfortunately, despite this potential and despite legislative and policy commitments to equal access,
many office documents produced globally are still not prepared inclusively. Factors contributing to this
situation include the still under-developed state of accessibility support (e.g., accessibility checkers) in
office applications and a general lack of awareness and knowledge by users of the accessibility features
that are already present in these applications.
The Accessible Digital Office Documents (ADOD) Project provides a framework for assessing the
accessibility of office documents and the accessibility support provided by office applications. ADOD is
based on the accessibility guidance provided for Web content and Web content authoring tools by the
W3C-WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) and Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines
(ATAG 1.0).
ADOD is comprised of the “ADOD Assessment Framework” and a suite of supporting documents.
Scope
The ADOD Assessment Framework specifically targets office documents, which are defined as computer
documents that are:
1. Intended to be used by people (i.e., not computer code),
2. Text-based (i.e., not simply images, although they may contain images),
3. Fully printable (i.e., where dynamic features are limited to automatic page numbering, table of
contents, etc. and do not include audio, video, or embedded interactivity),
4. Self-contained (i.e., without hyperlinks to other resources unlike web content), and
5. Typical of office-style workflows (Reports, letters, memos, budgets, presentations, etc.).
ADOD Assessment Framework does not simply apply to any document produced by an office application
using an office document format. This is an important distinction because office document formats and
office applications have been extended over the years to allow the creation of content with many of the
same dynamic and interactive features as web content technologies offer (e.g., hyperlinking to other
resources, multimedia support, and programmability). When office document formats are used to
create dynamic and/or interactive content (whether or not for the Web), WCAG 2.0 rather than the
ADOD Assessment Framework should be consulted to assess accessibility.
Since full inclusion includes allowing everyone to be both consumers and producers of content, the
ADOD Assessment Framework addresses the question of office document accessibility from several
perspectives:


Accessibility of office documents
o Part 1 ([ADOD-Office-Documents] Assessing the accessibility of office documents)
addresses the accessibility of complete office documents, ready for sharing with other
users. This section is based on WCAG 2.0.
Accessibility of Office Document Formats
o


Part 2 ([ADOD-Office-Formats] Assessing the accessibility of office document formats)
addresses the accessibility of the underlying office document formats, regardless of how
they are presented to users in the various office applications. This section is based on a
subset of [ADOD-Office-Documents], above.
Accessibility of Office Application User Interfaces
o Part 3 ([ADOD-Office-Applications-UI] Assessing the accessibility of office application
user interfaces) addresses the accessibility to users with disabilities of the user
interfaces provided by office applications. This section is based on ATAG 1.0 Guideline 7
(“Ensure that the authoring tool is accessible to authors with disabilities.”)
Support for Authoring Accessible Office Documents
o Part 4 ([ADOD-Office-Applications-Supports] Assessing the provision by office
applications of support for authoring accessible office documents) addresses the
features that office applications provide to all users to support and encourage
production of accessible office documents. This section is based on ATAG 1.0 Guidelines
1-6.
The supporting documents will focus primarily on three types of office documents:



Word processor documents are used for general-purpose text documents (e.g., reports, letters,
memos, etc.),
Spreadsheets are used for tabular documents (e.g., budgets, inventories, etc.), and
Presentations are used for presentations (briefings, sales presentations, etc.).
Note re: Presentations: Of the three types of office documents, presentations are the most likely to
make use of dynamic or interactive content (e.g., audio, video, multimedia, animations, hyperlinks to
other resources, etc.). When this is the case, WCAG 2.0 should be used to assess accessibility, rather
than ADOD’s Assessment Framework.
Note re: Document editing is not considered “dynamic/interactive” content: One of the typical
features of office documents is that they are often editable and during editing, a certain amount of
interactivity and dynamism may occur (e.g., the document updates to reflect the user’s last entry, when
the use updates a spreadsheet cell other cells may also update). However, ADOD does not consider
changes caused by editing an office document to constitute interactive/dynamic content.
Relationship between ADOD and WCAG 2.0/ATAG 1.0
The W3C-WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) and W3C-WAI Authoring Tool
Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG 1.0*) provide open, comprehensive and respected guidance on how to
develop accessible web content and accessible web content authoring tools. The ADOD Assessment
Framework is an attempt to usefully apply these guidelines to the context of office
documents/application with as little “adjustment” as possible.
The adjustments are necessary because simply applying WCAG 2.0 and ATAG 1.0 to the context of office
documents/applications has several drawbacks:
1. Vocabulary confusion: ATAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0 both make frequent use of terms such as “web
content” and “authoring tool” that need to be re-mapped to be applicable to office documents
and office applications. Creating adjusted sets of success criteria for ADOD allowed the office
document-specific terms to be inserted
2. Numerous non-applicable success criteria: Because ADOD focuses specifically on office
documents without dynamic or interactive content, many WCAG 2.0 success criteria are not
applicable. Creating an adjusted set of office document accessibility success criteria for ADOD
allowed the non-applicable success criteria to be dropped.
3. Multiple conformance levels: In formulating an easy-to-use assessment framework for office
documents it was judged that the multiple conformance levels were an unnecessary
complication. Creating adjusted sets of success criteria for ADOD at WCAG 2.0 Level AA meant
that the level identifiers could be removed.
4. ATAG 1.0 references WCAG 1.0: ATAG 1.0 references WCAG 1.0, rather than the current W#C
Recommendation, WCAG 2.0. Creating adjusted sets of success criteria for ADOD meant that the
references could be changed to WCAG 2.0.
5. ATAG 1.0 is prioritized differently that WCAG 2.0: In WCAG 2.0, “success criteria” are assigned
a “Level” between Level A and Level AA. In ATAG 1.0, “checkpoints” are assigned a “Priority”
between priority 1 and priority 3. “Relative Priority” items take their priority level from the
WCAG content in question. Creating adjusted sets of success criteria for ADOD meant that
common wording could be employed.
At the same time, in order to reduce the risk of “fragmenting” the guidance provided to office
application developers, who have only a limited budget for maintaining and improving of accessibility
features, ADOD:
1. Uses the W3C-WAI numbering schemes and
2. Uses the original W3C-WAI wording except where vocabulary adjustments are indentified
with square brackets.
* At the time of writing, ATAG 1.0 is the current Recommendation of W3C; ATAG 2.0 is under
development.
ADOD Supporting Documents
ADOD includes several sets of Supporting Documents:



(1) Authoring Techniques for Accessible Office Documents (specific to each particular office
application)
(2) Assessments of Support for Creating Accessible Office Documents
(3) Assessments the Accessibility of Office Application User Interfaces
Here is the list of Support Documents again, along with the relevant audiences:
(1) Authoring Techniques for Accessible Office Documents (specific to each particular office
application)




All users of office applications
Purchasers of office applications
IT personnel
Office application developers
(2) Assessments of Support for Creating Accessible Office Documents

Office application users with disabilities



Purchasers of office applications
Policy makers
Office application developers
(3) Assessments the Accessibility of Office Application User Interfaces






Office application users with disabilities
Human Resources personnel concerned with job accommodation
Purchasers of office applications
Policy makers
IT personnel
Office application developers
Conformance
Since ADOD is essentially a “view” of WCAG 2.0 and ATAG 1.0 that is specific to office documents and
office applications, an ADOD-specific conformance model is unnecessary. Instead, official conformance
claims should be made to WCAG 2.0 (for office documents) and ATAG 1.0 (for office applications), noting
that any Web-specific wording has been interpreted for an office document/application context.
If the document or application meets the criteria for being an office document or office application
under the ADOD definition (i.e., used by people, text-based, fully printable, self-contained, and is typical
of office-style workflows) then “Not Applicable” can be entered for all of the WCAG 2.0/ATAG 1.0
success criteria that are left out of the ADOD Assessment Framework.
Glossary of ADOD-Specific Terms
Terms specific to WCAG 2.0 and ATAG 1.0 are defined in those Recommendations.
office documents (digital office documents)
Computer files encoded in office document formats that are:





Intended to be used by people (i.e., are not computer code),
Text-based (i.e., are not simply images, although they may contain images),
Fully printable (i.e., dynamic features are limited to automatic page numbering, table of
contents, etc. not audio, video, and embedded interactivity),
Self-contained (i.e., without links to other resources as is common with web content), and
Typical of office-style workflows (Reports, letters, memos, budgets, presentations, etc.).
Note: This purposefully excludes most documents making use of dynamic and interactive content
(audio, video, hyperlinks to other resources, forms, programmability, etc.), since the accessibility of
these are better assessed using WCAG 2.0. ADOD does, however, cover some dynamic content
(animations, audio and video) in the context of presentations.
office document formats (digital office document formats)
Computer file formats that are produced and viewed primarily by office applications, such as word
processor formats (e.g., Microsoft Word (*.doc, *.docx), OpenDocument Text (*.odt)), spreadsheet
formats (Microsoft Excel (*.xls, *.xlsx) and OpenDocument Spreadsheet (*.ods)), and presentation
formats (e.g., Microsoft Powerpoint (*.ppt, *.pptx) and OpenDocument Presentation (*.odp)).
office applications (digital office applications)
Computer programs that are used to create office documents. Office applications are available for
desktop platforms, mobile devices, web-based etc.
office application suite
A set of office applications that are distributed together. The applications that make up a suite often
share relatively consistent user interfaces and the ability for enhanced interaction between them (e.g.,
the ability to paste a spreadsheet directly into a word processing document). ADOD covers the typical
core members of most office suites: word processors, spreadsheet applications, and presentation
applications. In addition, some suites include note-takers, flow-chart editors, image editors, formula
editors, etc.
References
W3C Recommendations:
"Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0", J. Treviranus, C. McCathieNevile, I. Jacobs, and J. Richards,
eds., 3 February 2000. This W3C Recommendation is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/RECATAG10-20000203/.
"Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0," W. Chisholm, G. Vanderheiden, and I. Jacobs, eds., 5 May
1999. This Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505. The latest
version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0" is available at
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/.
Other Resources Consulted:
Adobe Accessibility Best Practices - http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/acrobat/pdf/A9access-best-practices.pdf
Adobe Accessibility Overview - http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/?promoid=DJGVE
Adobe PDF Accessibility - http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/acrobat/pdf/A9-pdfaccesibility-overview.pdf
Apple Accessibility Overview - http://www.apple.com/accessibility/
Apple Accessible Application Design Guide http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Accessibility/Conceptual/AccessibilityMacOSX/
OSXAXDeveloping/OSXAXDeveloping.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40001078-CH207-BABGJCGG
Authoring accessible PDF guide - http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/acrobat/training.html
Corel WordPerfect Accessibility http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Content/1153321168236
GAWDS Writing Better Alt Text - http://www.gawds.org/show.php?contentid=28
Google Accessibility Overview - http://www.google.com/accessibility/
Google Docs Keyboard Shortcuts http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66280
Google Docs with Screen Reader http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=152439
Guide for creating accessible documents with Lotus Symphony - http://www03.ibm.com/able/events/downloads/CSUN_2009_paper_Utilizing_Lotus_Symphony_to_Create_and_Te
st_Open_and_Accessible_Documents_Cragun_Keohane_Li.pdf
IBM Accessibility Overview - http://www-03.ibm.com/able/index.html
IBM Software Accessibility Checklist - http://www03.ibm.com/able/guidelines/software/accesssoftware.html
KOffice Accessibility Report - http://accessibility.kde.org/reports/koffice-1.4.1-accessibilityassessment.pdf
Microsoft Accessibility Development Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/enca/windows/bb735024.aspx
Microsoft Accessibility Overview - http://www.microsoft.com/enable/education/
Microsoft Office 2007 Accessibility http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/office2007/default.aspx
Microsoft Office 2010 Accessibility http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/office2010/default.aspx
Novell Accessibility Guidelines - http://ocw.novell.com/help/accessibility-guidelines
OASIS Document-centric Applications - http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_cat.php?cat=doccent
OASIS OpenDocument Accessibility Sub-committee - http://www.oasisopen.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=office-accessibility
OASIS OpenDocument FAQs - http://opendocument.xml.org/accessibility-faq
ODF Accessibility Overview - http://www.opendocumentfellowship.com/introduction/accessibility
ODF and Government - http://www.opendocumentfellowship.com/government
OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide - http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/userguide3/0200WG3WriterGuide.pdf
OpenOffice.org Accessibility Project - http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Accessibility
OpenOffice.org Document Representation Guidelines - http://ui.openoffice.org/accessibility/docrepguidelines.html
OpenOffice.org Presentation Accessibility Guidelines - http://ui.openoffice.org/accessibility/proposalimpress.html
OpenOffice.org Spreadsheet Accessibility Guidelines - http://ui.openoffice.org/accessibility/proposalcalc.html
OpenOffice.org StarOffice Modules http://api.openoffice.org/docs/common/ref/com/sun/star/text/module-ix.html
OpenOffice.org Writer Accessibility Guidelines - http://ui.openoffice.org/accessibility/proposalwriter.html
PDF/UA, AIIM Committee - http://pdf.editme.com/pdfua
WebAIM Microsoft Powerpoint Techniques http://webaim.org/techniques/powerpoint
WebAIM Microsoft Word Techniques http://webaim.org/techniques/word/
WebAIM OpenOffice Techniques - http://webaim.org/techniques/ooo/
Word to DTBook - http://www.daisy.org/daisypedia/convert-word-document-dtbook
Word to DTBook - http://www.daisy.org/daisypedia/how-convert-microsoft-word-document-full-textfull-audio-daisy-book
Acknowledgments
This document was produced as part of the Accessible Digital Office Document (ADOD) Project
(http://adod.idrc.ocad.ca/).
This project has been developed by the Inclusive Design Research Centre, OCAD University as part of an
EnAbling Change Partnership project with the Government of Ontario and UNESCO (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).
Copyright © 2010 Inclusive Design Research Centre, OCAD University
This material may be reproduced and distributed in print or electronic format only as long as: (a) it is
offered at no cost to the recipients; and
(b) full credit is given to the Inclusive Design Research Centre, OCAD University; and
(c) the copyright notice is preserved (e.g., "Copyright © Inclusive Design Research Centre, OCAD
University”).