Accessible Documents
This resource provides information about common office documents and accessibility. Below are some handouts and supporting documents that were developed for an Accessible Documents Workshop offered at the University of Maine - Augusta.
In addition, we have been writing a series of articles about Accessible Documents for the Maine State Office of Technology (OIT). We are going to post all of the articles here as a resource to support anyone interested in learning more about this topic.
Accessible Documents Articles
Article 1: Accessible Word Processor Documents
Article 2: Accessible Spreadsheet and Presentational Documents
Article 3: Portable Document Format (PDF) Files and Accessibility
Article 5 - General Considerations about Web-based Communications
Article 7 - Web 2.0 Applications and Accessibility
Article 8 - Social Networking and Accessibility
Article 9 - A Look at the Future
Article 10 - Learning Management Systems
Handouts and Presentation
These documents/files are created in MS-Office 2003 and may require that program or plug-in to view
Accessible Documents Cover Sheet - MS-Publisher file
How to make an Adobe Acrobat file from Word doc - MS-Word Doc
How to use Headings and Styles - MS-Word Doc
How to add Alternative text to images in Word - MS-Word Doc
How to check the Language of the Word document - MS-Word Doc
How to check Tabled Information of a Word document - MS-Word Doc
Most Common Accessibility Errors - MS-Word Doc
Making Accessible Documents - MS-PowerPoint file
Sample of a PDF Form made with Adobe LiveCycle Design (with Print Button)
Sample of a PDF Form made with Adobe LiveCycle Design (without Print Button)
Screencaptures
How to insert an image into a MS-Word 2007 document (Requires Flash plugin) [Close captioned]
How to add ALT text to chart in MS-Excel 2007 document (Requires Flash plugin) [No Audio]
How to add ALT text to an image in MS-Powerpoint 2007 document (Requires Flash plugin) [No Audio]
How to add ALT text to an image in Adobe LifeCycle Designer (Requires Flash plugin) [No Audio]
Other Resources
Web Site Development Resources
These are the resources directly related to Article 5 - General Considerations about Web-based Communications
Images
WebAIM - Appropriate use of alternative text
Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS) - Writing good ALT text (Excellent summary with place for comments)
Wikipedia - Alternative text for images
Jim Thatcher - text alternatives for images
Webcredible - Writing effective ALT text for images
Web Design Group (WDG) - Use of ALT texts in IMGs (Warning: this is long, complicated, and a bit dated)
Tables
WebAIM - Creating Accessible Tables
Jim Thatcher - Accessible tables
Accessify - Accessible Table Builder (actually builds the code for you)
evolt - Building Accessible Tables(old but interesting)
Maine CITE - My own example of layout tables and an example of a Data table
Forms
WebAIM - Creating Accessible Forms
Web Standards Project - Accessible HTML/XHTML Forms: Beginner Level
Jim Thatcher - Accessible Forms
A List Apart - Prettier Accessible Forms (lots of CSS if you are interested)
Links
WebAIM - Introduction to Links and Hypertext
Captioning
Web Captioning General Information
WebAIM
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/captions/
Universal Design in Maine blog
http://udmlti.edublogs.org/2008/04/02/accessibility-of-web-20-video/
Media Access Group at WGBH Boston
http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/resources/guides/mag_guide_vol7.html
Captioning Web
http://www.captions.org/
National Captioning Institute
http://www.ncicap.org/
Joe Clark’s website
http://joeclark.org/access/captioning/
Captioners/Captionists
Captioning Web – Search Engine
http://www.captions.org/services.cfm
Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART)
http://www.cartinfo.org/
Captioning Services
Automatic Synch Technologies
http://www.automaticsync.com/caption/
CC Maker
http://www.ccmaker.com/
CaptionMax
http://www.captionmax.com/
Captionate – Flash video
http://www.buraks.com/captionate/
C-Print
http://www.ntid.rit.edu/CPrint/
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/caption.asp
National Association of the Deaf
http://www.nad.org/site/pp.asp?c=foINKQMBF&b=99547
Captioning Software
Captioning Web
http://www.captions.org/softlinks.cfm
WebAIM
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/captions/software.php
Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Training Resources
These resources are found on the Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Training page. If you have difficulty viewing the videos below, use this link to go to the source page.
Using accessibility features within Acrobat 8(SWF, 11.3M)
Assessing PDF files for accessibility (SWF, 7.5M)
Creating accessible PDF files (SWF, 16.4M)
Additional Training Documents
There are a number of additional training guides and resources on this Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Training resource page. I recommend visiting that site and downloading these for your reference.