Post on 24-Feb-2016
description
Making your Instructional Materials AccessibleMS Word, PowerPoint, Acrobat
Jonathan WhitingFebruary 17, 2013
Evolution of Accessible Design
Accommodation
Accommodation
• “People with disabilities don’t visit our site.”• Not ‘timely’ (e.g., call a phone number or mail
in a form)• Not ‘equivalent’ (text-only or ‘accessible’
versions)• “It’s not my job.”
Retrofitting
Retrofitting
• Accessibility is ‘bolted on’ to an existing product
• More expensive and time-consuming, at least initially
• “We can’t make it accessible so we’re not going to build it.”
Accessible Design
Accessible Design
• Accessibility is addressed throughout the design process (requirements, mockups, design, development, QA, etc.)
• Developers have training and support• Product is more usable and accessible for
everyone
How do you get to accessible design?
1. A shared commitment2. A concrete policy and plan3. Sufficient support for personnel4. Ongoing evaluation
Ensure your content is accessible to users with various disabilities
• Vision - blind, low vision, color-blind• Hearing - Deaf and Hard-of-hearing• Motor - Difficulty using a mouse or keyboard• Cognitive• Seizure
Blindness
• Headings• Alternative text for images• Meaningful link text• Reading order
HeadingsThe Wrong way to do headings:• PPT and MS Word- Plain text enlarged• HTML-<p class=“heading2”>Big text (usually) resized with CSS</p>
The right way to do headings• PPT- Use slide templates• Word- Use styles panel• HTML- <h2>Use true headings</h2>
What is equivalent alt text?
CONTENT and FUNCTION
VERY RARELY Description
Alternative text
alt=“Blue ITC logo with a small globe that serves as a dot in the i. Next to the logo is green text that reads Instructional Technology Council”
Meaningful link text
...For more information on this topic, read Essentials of Online Course Design: A Standards-Based Guide- http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Online-Course-Design-Standards-Based/dp/0415873002/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329661475&sr=1-11
Reading order
There’s that logo again
Inserting items on the page using text boxes etc. can sometimes cause reading order issues
Low visionUse good contrast and adequate font size. As you can see poor contrast and smaller font size make it much more difficult to read text. Also remember that you should not use images for
Color blindness
Color blindness
The green mushrooms listed here are OK to eat. The red mushrooms will kill you. – Amanita– Chanterelle– Porcini– Shitake– Tylopilus
`
Color blindness
The green mushrooms listed here are OK to eat. The red mushrooms will kill you. – Amanita– Chanterelle– Porcini– Shitake– Tylopilus
Auditory disabilities
From webaim.org/intro/
Keyboard accessibility
For the most part, documents created in MS Office are keyboard accessible.
The Secret to Everlasting Happiness
Please finish reading this text – it will give you the secret to everlasting happiness. The secret is simple, all you need to do is to stop worrying about the key to everlasting happiness and enjoy the moment.
Sorry! Time’s up!Better luck next time!
Understandable
• Be careful with movement and other distractions (including transitions)
• Semantic organization (headings, lists, etc.)• Be consistent
• Simplify , Simplify
Preferred Formats for Web Content
HTML > PDF > Doc/PPT > Anything else
...except PPT slides, then PDF is usually better
Which provides better accessibility?
PDF in a nutshell
• Tagged PDF = accessibility-enabled (not necessarily “accessible”) PDF
• Do as much as you can in the source document• Make sure you export correctly• Do not print to PDF• Need Acrobat Pro to edit tagged PDFs– TouchUp Reading Order tool is your friend (and
enemy)
Acrobat XI
• Improvements– Adding Alternative text– TouchUp Reading Order tool– Accessibility Wizard– Accessibility Checker
• Compatible with 64-bit versions of Office