RE:CON 2018 Accessible Documents Step by Step Instructions

Transcription

1 RE:CON 2018 Accessible Documents Step by Step Instructions 1

2 Table of Contents RE:CON Accessible Documents... 1 Step by Step... 1 Instructions... 1 Table of Contents... 2 Two Ways Format Your Document... 6 Direct Formatting: The Wrong Way... 6 Using Styles: The Correct Way... 6 Finding Styles... 7 Headers and Footer... 7 Headings... 8 How to Apply a Heading Style... 9 How to View the Heading Structure All about Fonts What is a Sans Serif Font? What about Size? What Else Do I Need to Consider?

3 Some Things to Avoid Using Set your Font Choice for the Entire Document Want to Learn More About Fonts? Paragraph Text Boxes More Information about Text Boxes Lists To create an ordered or unordered list: Columns About Spacing and White Space Avoid Justified Text! Don t Hyphenate Words Keep Margins Normal Paragraph Formatting Spacing Between Lines of Text White Space around Images or Objects To add white space using Paragraph Styles All about Color

4 Don t use Color Alone Color Blindness Color Contrast Want to Learn More About Color? Customize Your Styles To customize a Style on an Existing Document Save a custom Quick Style set How to Change Your Style Set Page Breaks To add a page break: View Formatting To Show Paragraph Marks & Other Hidden Formatting Symbols Meaningful Text for Hyperlinks To add a hyperlink to your document, do the following: To change the text of a hyperlink, do the following: Text Alternatives for Images & Graphic Objects How to Add Alternative Text Word 2010 & Beyond

5 The Art of Alt Text Decorative Text Accessible Tables Setting the Table Making Your Accessible Table Charts and Graphs To create a chart Add Titles and Labels To apply a Predefined Chart Layout To Change to a Different Predefined Chart Type Remember Color Issues Text Alternatives for Images & Graphic Objects Keep Objects in-line with Text To prevent an image or object from floating Accessibility Checker 2010 & Beyond To Use the Accessibility Checker What the Accessibility Checker Can t Check Save As

6 Two Ways Format Your Document Direct Formatting: The Wrong Way Direct formatting is when you select text and apply effects to it for visual impact. For example, to format headings, you can select the text, apply bold formatting, and then apply a slightly larger font size than the size that you use for the body text. Applying formatting in this manner is known as direct formatting. The process of applying direct formatting can be tedious. It's easy to make mistakes, and you might not get a good looking document. Also, you have to repeat the direct formatting process for each heading, and you must be careful to select the same font size every time. Direct formatting is not only tedious and prone to errors; it also results in a document which will not be accessible! Using Styles: The Correct Way By contrast, when you use styles to format your document, you can quickly and easily apply a set of formatting choices consistently throughout your document. A style is a set of formatting characteristics, such as font name, size, color, paragraph alignment and spacing. 6

7 Finding Styles So where are these styles? How do I use them? Microsoft Word has tools at the top of the page on what they call the Ribbon. The ribbon has tabs at the top, and then within each tab are groups. For example, on the Home tab, there are groups for clipboard, font, paragraph, styles, and editing. (If you ve modified your ribbon, you might have other groups too.) There are also styles for other things you might put in your documents, like graphs, tables, columns and lists. We ll be talking more about these in upcoming sessions. Here is a resource if you want to learn more about Styles in MS Word: Style basics in Word: This refers to Word 2007, so the screen shots may be a bit different. It goes beyond basics into some level of detail actually and doesn t directly discuss accessibility. Headers and Footer Informative headers and footers and page numbering help people with cognitive impairment orient themselves, but they also improve understanding for everyone. Headers are sometimes used for important information. Please be aware that while screen readers can read information in the header and footer 7

8 area, they don t read it automatically. Therefore, a reader may not get this information. If it s important, consider putting it the main document. When you add headers and footers, be sure to use the Microsoft Word Headers and Footers feature. When headers and footers are typed in as text on each page, users of assistive technology often mistake the header or footer as part of the page content. This often causes confusion during navigation, especially when lengthy identical headers or footers are used. Oh, and don t worry about the page numbers because screen readers have a built-in functionality that tells users what page they are on at any one time. So it s fine to put page numbers in the footer. Headings Any documents that are longer than a few paragraphs require structuring to make them easier for readers to understand. One of the simplest ways to do this is to use "True Headings" to create logical divisions between paragraphs. True headings are more than just bolded, enlarged, or centered text; they are structural elements that order and levels provide a meaningful sequence to users of assistive technologies. If you use the built-in heading styles, MS Word can generate a table of contents automatically. Word also uses the built-in heading styles to create Navigation, which is a convenient feature for moving through long documents. People who have mobility issues can use the either the table of contents or open a navigation pane to quickly jump through the document, instead of having to scroll. People who use screen readers 8

9 can use the heading structure to get to the section they are interesting in hearing. Since headings are used for navigation, it s best to keep your heading short. If your document is converted into a PDF document, the headings will automatically become PDF bookmarks It is important to make sure your headings are in a logical order: Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 and so on. A document should just have one Heading 1. Only use Headings 1 through Heading 6. *Most AT will not recognize Headings 7, 8, or 9. *(Not sure this is true?) How to Apply a Heading Style 1. Select the text you ve typed as the heading. (shift + down arrow, selects a line of text) 2. Go to the Styles group on the Home tab. (alt + control + 1 etc.) 3. Select/click on the appropriate numbered heading. 9

10 How to View the Heading Structure 4. Select the View tab, in the Show group; select the Navigation Pane check box *(alt + w then k). (Once the navigation pain is checked you can then use F6 anytime you need to return to it.) 5. Select the right facing arrows to open the subheadings if needed. 6. Selecting a heading will then jump the cursor to that point in the document. All about Fonts Your choice of font makes a difference for people with print disabilities. While there is some controversy over the best font to use, most studies indicate a sans serif font is better for people who have print disabilities or are just learning to read. 10

11 What is a Sans Serif Font? A serif is a small decorative line added as embellishment to the basic form of a character. Sans means that the letters don t have these embellishments. Some commonly used sans serif fonts include Arial, Verdana and Helvetica What about Size? Did you know that the same point size for a font is different depending on the font family? That s why having a standard of using 14pt font without specifying which font isn t as effective. Here s an example, these are all 14 point: Arial Black Arial Bell MT Bradley Hand ITC Comic Sans MS Freesia UPC Microsoft Sans Serif What Else Do I Need to Consider? It s best to use fonts that are simple and widely available. Not only are they easier to read, but they also are available on most 11

12 computers so you don t run the risk of a font substitution being required. Some Things to Avoid Using Adding Text Boxes, Quick Parts, Word Art, and Drop Caps and Watermarks are either inaccessible to screenreaders or difficult for persons with low vision. Set your Font Choice for the Entire Document Customizing each style s font is tedious; luckily, you don t have to do this! Here s how to make it easier! 1. Go to Style Group in the Ribbon (keyboard users: skip to step 4) 2. Select Change Styles 3. Select Font 4. Scroll down to Create New Theme Fonts. (alt+h then g then f then c) 12

13 5. In the pop-up box, select your preferred font for headings and body text. (tab through choices). You also may want to give your new font theme a name. You don t have to change the font on every new document you open, if you want these new settings to be default, then: 1. Go to Style Group in the Ribbon (keyboard users: skip to step 3) 2. Select Change Styles 13

14 3. Scroll down to the bottom, and select Set as Default. (alt+h g s) 4. When you close your document, you ll get a pop up box which says something about changes have been made which effect the global template: Normal, do you want to save these changes? Yes, you do! Want to Learn More About Fonts? 1. Here s a link to a PDF document which has more information about text: Making Text Legible 1 2. Dyslexic friendly fonts Surprising Bad Practices That Hurt Dyslexic Users 3 Paragraph Here s where you can make sure you have good space between paragraphs and avoid having to use blank lines in order to achieve white space. There are some basic Paragraph style settings you can do in the Modify Style box Under the Formatting section, there are tools for single, line and half and double spacing. You can also increase or decrease space before and after this style (i.e. between paragraphs). 1. Go to Format, but this time, select Paragraph. (alt + h then p, then g) 14

15 2. The first tab in the is box is Indents and Spacing 3. Use settings in this box to achieve good white space. Text Boxes Did you know that for people who use screen reading technology, text boxes can be treated as objects and not text? Users of some screen readers do have specific commands that can be used to read a text box, but not all will know how to do this. Also, since they are not alerted to the fact that a text box is present on the page, they probably wouldn t search of these. Also, text boxes are often used to float information next to text. As you may recall from our discussion about images, this can interrupt the flow of text for screen reader technology and can be visually confusing for other people. Objects should be in-line with text to avoid these access issues. To see if you have a text box in the document, you can: 1. Go to the View Tab 2. Select the Draft view (alt + w then e) 3. If it s a text box, it won t show up in this view. 15

16 If you think this type of emphasis is really needed you can style the text using tools in the paragraph group on the Home tab of the ribbon. Start fake text box For this box, I used the tools from the ribbon to add color behind text, then selected the text and tweaked the margins just for this box. End fake text box One site suggested adding text the color of the background to indicate the start and end of the text box content only for screen readers. Such as Start Case Study and End Case Study. If you do this, you can set the font size very small, as it won t be a visually accessed item. You could also create a custom style to look like a text box. If so, you ll need to base a new style on a paragraph level item and put a border around it This is actually text with style formatting applied to it formatted in styles More Information about Text Boxes 1. Discussion thread on WebAIM re: headers and footers 4 2. Use of Text Boxes and Access 5 16

17 Lists When you create lists, it is important to format them as "real lists". Otherwise, assistive technologies will interpret your list as a series of short separate paragraphs instead of a coherent list of related items. To create an ordered or unordered list: 1. Go to menu tab: Home 2. In the Paragraph section, select the Bullets icon for unordered lists (alt + h then u) or select the Numbering icon for ordered lists (alt + h then n then d) 3. To choose a different list format, select the arrow beside the icon 4. Select a format from the format Library that appears in the drop-down menu Note: You can use styles to set up and control bulleted and numbered lists. However, it is not possible to control multilevel lists with Styles. Multilevel lists can only be controlled from the Home Tab, Paragraph Group. Columns Use the Columns feature for placing text in columns. (alt + p then j) 17

18 Note: Because columns can be a challenge for some users with disabilities (e.g. people using magnifiers), consider whether a column layout is necessary. About Spacing and White Space Keeping enough space on your document, between lines, letters and objects can help to make them more readable by everyone. Avoid Justified Text! Left and right alignment (justified) text causes uneven spaces between words. It is more difficult to read because the human eye cannot move smoothly along the sentence and has to search and jump to the start of each word. 18

19 Left aligned text is easier to read. If someone with low vision is magnifying the document, then centered or right aligned text might be harder to find. Rivers of white The problem for people who have dyslexia occurs because large gaps between words are more likely to line up above one another than are the smaller gaps typical of more evenly spaced text. When they do, readers may perceive highly distracting white patterns flowing through the page that can become more prominent than the text itself. The effect is known as "rivers of white" and it can make reading difficult, if not impossible. Screen magnifier users Uneven word spacing can also cause problems for people with various vision impairments who use screen magnification software. For these people the already exaggerated spaces between words are magnified still further, making the gaps even harder to jump across. Don t Hyphenate Words Hyphenated words are harder to read. To turn off auto hyphenation in Word: 1. In the ribbon, go to the Page Layout tab 2. Find the Page Setup group 3. Click Hyphenation 4. Select None 19

20 A related recommendation to improve readability is to keep single pieces of information like websites, phone numbers or addresses on the same line. Keep Margins Normal The use of narrow margins will result in less white space on your page. It s good to leave the margins at the normal setting. 20

21 Paragraph Formatting Don t use the enter key to create a space between paragraphs as this creates an empty paragraph. A screen reader user will hear blank, blank. Instead modify the style s paragraph formatting to add space above or below paragraphs. You also can use paragraph formatting in styles to change the indentation of a paragraph. Don t use the space bar or tab to do this unless you want to annoy readers who use screen reading software since they ll hear blank, blank, blank! Not sure if your document has empty lines or spaces? In your ribbon, on the home tab and in the paragraph group there is a Show/Hide tool or Control+*. Turn this one to see the paragraph tags and spaces in your document. Spacing Between Lines of Text Effective Leading Space Leading, or spacing between lines of text, should be at least 25 to 30 percent of the point size. This is because many people with partial sight have difficulty finding the beginning of the next line while reading. 21

22 Not effective leading space Leading, or spacing between lines of text, should be at least 25 to 30 percent of the point size. This is because many people with partial sight have difficulty finding the beginning of the next line while reading. White Space around Images or Objects Adding white space around your images can make it easier for the PDF Maker to properly tag your documents for accessibility when it does the conversion from Microsoft Word to the PDF document format. Add the white space by using Paragraph Styles built into Microsoft Word. To add white space using Paragraph Styles 1. In the Ribbon, select the Home tab, then in the Styles section select Change Styles. 22

23 2. Select Paragraph Spacing and choose one of the built-in styles. As you select each style set, you should see a real time preview in the document window (no spacing, compact, tight, relaxed, double, etc). 3. To customize the spacing, choose Custom Paragraph Spacing at the bottom of the list. 23

24 4. In the Manage Styles window, enter the amount of desired white space in the Before and After fields found under Paragraph Spacing. After you add this white space, you should notice more separation between your between your paragraphs. You will also have more separation between text and objects, such as images if you make them in line with text. 24

25 All about Color Don t use Color Alone Not accessible: The items in red below are required Name Phone Why You Want us to Contact You. Accessible: The items marked with * and in red are required: *Name * *Phone Why You Want us to Contact You. Color Blindness Some people cannot see certain colors well or at all, usually because of deficiencies in the cone receptors of their eyes which are responsible for color perception. This is commonly called color blindness, even though most people who are color blind can see most colors. It is rare that a person cannot see any color at all. Globally, approximately 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women have color vision deficiencies. Color vision 25

26 deficiencies are not classified as low vision or disabilities in many contexts. Simulated examples of color blindness: Full color perception Red-green color blindness Blue-yellow color blindness No color perception (rare) 26

27 Color Contrast Just because it looks like good color contrast to you, doesn t mean everyone will see it the same. Very high contrast is difficult to achieve without using black and white. So if you use color, it is better to use other color combinations for larger or highlighted text, like headings. Color Contrast Analyzer One way to check color is to print out your document in grey scale. If you want more information and a chance to try out color combinations, there is a tool available. The color contrast analyzer was developed by web designers. (The link to download it is below.) 27

28 Want to Learn More About Color? 1. We are Color Blind 6 2. Effective Color Contrast 7 : PDF booklet from Lighthouse International 3. PDF of PowerPoint about effective color contrast 8 4. Color Contrast Analyzer from WebAIM 9 5. Color Contrast Analyzer (for download) 10 Customize Your Styles You can use the Home Tab - Styles group to customize your Headings and other styles used in your document, like Normal paragraph text, and List Paragraph. Here are some of the things you can tweak to improve accessibility: To customize a Style on an Existing Document 1. Right Click on the style in the Style Group 2. If the style isn t on the ribbon s Style Group: (for keyboard shortcuts, skip to c ) 3. Select the More down arrow in the lower right corner next to the list of styles (to the left of change styles ) You ll then get a drop down box, in this select Apply Styles. 4. In the Apply Styles pop up box, you can search for the style you want. 5. Or, To open the Styles Pane, which will give you a list of all the possible styles, select the icon in the bottom right corner of the styles group (Shortcut or alt + h then f then y) 28

29 6. If you are in the Pop up box (step b) then Select Modify, if you are in the Styles Pane (step c) then right click, then select modify. (Application Key, arrow down to Modify, *press enter) 7. Typically, you can leave the Properties (Name, Style Type, Style Based on, and Style for the Following Paragraph) the same. Save a custom Quick Style set 1. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Change Styles, and then point to Style Set. (alt + h then g then y) 2. Scroll down, and Select/click on Save as Quick Style Set. (alt + h then g then y then q) 3. In dialog box which opens, type a name for your new Quick Style set, and then select/click on Save. 29

30 How to Change Your Style Set 1. On the Home Tab, Go to the Styles Group 2. On the right side of this group, select Change Styles 3. Find the style set you want and select it! Page Breaks Start a new page by inserting a page break instead of repeated hard returns. To add a page break: 1. Go to menu item: Page Layout 2. In the Page Setup section, select the arrow beside the Breaks icon. 3. Select the type of break to add. 30

31 Page break is used to start a new page with the same page layout (page orientation, headers, page numbering, etc.). (alt + n then b) Section break is used if you want to start a new section of the document with a differing page layout. (alt + p then s then p) View Formatting To Show Paragraph Marks & Other Hidden Formatting Symbols In the Ribbon Paragraph Group, find the symbol for paragraph and click/select this or (alt + h then 8) Meaningful Text for Hyperlinks Hyperlink text should provide a clear description of the link destination, rather than only providing the URL. Avoid ambiguous link text, like click 31

32 here, go, or here. Creating links with meaningful text will require a little extra thought on wording when writing content, but will make for clearer content for all users. To add a hyperlink to your document, do the following: 1. Place your cursor where you want the hyperlink. 2. On the Insert tab, in the Links group, click Hyperlink to open the hyperlink dialog box. (alt + n then i) 3. In the Text to display box, type in the name or phrase that will briefly describe the link destination. (alt + t) 4. In the Address box, type the link URL. (alt + e) 5. Click OK. To change the text of a hyperlink, do the following: 1. Select the link and then, (control + shift + right arrow) on the Insert tab in the Links group, click Hyperlink to open the Hyperlink dialog box. (alt + n then i) 2. In the Text to display box, make any necessary changes to the text. (alt + t) 32

33 3. Click OK. Text Alternatives for Images & Graphic Objects When using images or other graphical objects, such as charts and graphs, it is important to ensure that the information you intend to convey by the image is also conveyed to people who cannot see the image. This can be accomplished by adding concise alternative text to each image. If an image is too complicated to concisely describe in the alternative text alone (flow chart, artwork, etc.) provide a short text alternative as well as a longer description. How to Add Alternative Text Word 2010 & Beyond 1. To add alt text to an image, select the image, then right-click (Or select by pressing shift + F10) 33

34 2. Select Format Picture (o) 3. With the Format Picture menu open, select the option for Alt Text in the sidebar. 4. Leave the Title Blank 34

35 The Art of Alt Text Tips for writing alternative text 1. Try to answer the question what information is the image adding to the document? 2. If the image contains meaningful text, ensure all of the text is replicated 3. Alternative text should be fairly short, usually a sentence or less and rarely more than two sentences 4. You don t need to use words such as image of, or graphic of in the description of a graphic. This information is redundant as screen access packages will usually alert blind users that the item being read is an image; users who are not viewing images on a page will be able to tell where that image should be when browsing the page; and search engines will not benefit from the information 5. Be aware that alt text is not included in spell checking! Decorative Text Sometimes you will have an image that is purely decorative and doesn t add significant meaning to the document. Think about whether the image is needed. Not only is it extra information for people who use screen readers, it could be confusing if it doesn t add meaning to the document. If you still want to include the decorative image then here s how to add alternative text to it: 1. Right-click the image or graphic object; 35

36 2. Select Format Picture (select by pressing shift plus right arrow then application key) 3. Select the Alt Text (o) 4. Leave the Title blank 5. In the Description, type in (with an empty space between the quotation marks. Accessible Tables Tables can be great for presenting data, but we need to avoid using tables simply to format other content. With earlier word processors, it was common to create entire document layouts with tables. But now we know that using tables for layout for example, just to line things up neatly makes it nearly impossible for people who use assistive technologies to access our information. To create accessible tables for the presentation of data, we need to keep them simple and follow a few simple procedures. Setting the Table Let s say you have some data to present and decide to use a table. Where do you begin? Before you insert your table, it s a good idea to know how many columns and rows you need. Remember to allow a row for the column headers. The width of your columns should also be given some consideration, so that the table does not exceed the width of the page. For some tables you may need to change the page orientation to Landscape to give yourself more room horizontally. 36

37 Making Your Accessible Table Here s what you should do when making your accessible table: 1. Create your table with the Table tool in the Insert tab of the ribbon. (alt + n then t, use the arrow keys to pick number of rows and columns) 2. Select the Table you just created. (application key, then c then t) Add a Caption to Your Table 3. Right Click on the Table to bring up a list of options. (application key) 4. Select (press c to go to insert caption) 5. Give your table a title using the Caption tool. Web link to more screenshots of adding a caption

38 Identify the header row. Here s how: 1. First, select just the top row of your table, right click,) and choose Table Properties. (shift +down arrow then application key then r) 2. Next, select the Row tab. (control + tab) 3. Finally, check the box labeled Repeat as header row at the top of each page (space, then tab to ok and press space again.) Making the text in the header row bold or in a larger font can help people who are accessing the table visually to distinguish this text as a header. Restrict the table cells to a single page. 1. Select the entire table, (application key, then c then t) then right 38 click, (application key) and choose Table Properties. (r)

39 2. Then, select the Row tab. (control + tab) 3. Finally, uncheck the box labeled Allow rows to break across pages. (space, then tab to ok and press space again) Be sure there are no marks inside the box. Table Alternative Text Unless you have a complex chart or table, you will usually want to enter text in just the Description box. When you have complex content to describe, then filling in the Title field is useful so that reading the full description becomes unnecessary unless desired. As a general rule, use the Title box for a brief summary. This box should only be filled in if you are entering a detailed or long explanation in the Description box. For example, if your table contains exam scores for a class of students, your title could be Table containing the exam scores of my class June 2010 and your description could be Scores of 25 students in class 1b in their June 2010 history exam. Scores ranged from 48% to 95% with the average being 72%. Things You Should Not Do 1. Do not create your table using the Draw Table tool, which is available only with the Table tools on the Insert ribbon. 2. Do not create page layouts with tables. 3. Do not merge cells, and do not split cells. 39

40 4. Do not control spacing in your table with blank rows or columns. Adjust line spacing instead. Test the Table Structure To test the table structure, do the following: 1. Select the first cell of the table. 2. Press the Tab key repeatedly to make sure that the focus moves across the row and then down to the first cell of the next row. 3. Avoid using blank cells for formatting your table as this could mislead someone using a screen reader that there is nothing more in the table. You can fix this by deleting unnecessary blank cells. Charts and Graphs Charts can be used to make data more understandable for some audiences. It is important to ensure that your chart is as accessible as possible to all members of your audience. Basic accessibility considerations that you have applied to the rest of your document must also be applied to your charts and the elements within your charts. For example, use shape and color, rather than color alone, to convey information. There are also some additional steps to label the contents of your chart. To create a chart 1. Go to ribbon tab: Insert 2. In the Illustrations section, select Chart 3. Select a Chart Type from the Chart Gallery 40

41 4. Select OK 5. Update the datasheet* with the data you would like to include in your chart 6. Close the datasheet Note: This will open the Excel document titled Chart in Microsoft Office (Word or PowerPoint), where you can input the data you would like to include in the chart. When you have done this, simply close the Excel window and the data will appear on the chart Add Titles and Labels 1. In the Chart Tools menu section, go to menu item: Layout 2. In the Labels section, select the type of title or label you would like to define (e.g., Chart Title, Axis Titles, Data Labels) To apply a Predefined Chart Layout 1. In the Chart Tools menu section, go to menu item: Design 2. In the Chart Layouts section, select a Quick Layout from the scrolling Chart Layouts gallery To Change to a Different Predefined Chart Type 1. In the Chart Tools menu section, go to menu item: Design 2. In the Type section, select the Change Chart Type icon 3. In the Change Chart Type dialog, select a chart type from the left pane 4. Select a Chart Design from the right pane 5. Select OK 41

42 Remember Color Issues You can use the formatting options to add different fill textures to areas of your chart, in case color is not enough to distinguish the different areas. When creating line charts, use the formatting options to create different types of dotted lines to facilitate legibility for users who are color-blind. When creating bar charts, it is helpful to apply textures rather than colors to differentiate the bars. 1. Go to menu item: Chart Tools > Format and in the Shape Styles section select Shape Fill to apply a texture to help distinguish the bars 2. Change the default colors to a color safe or gray-scale palette 3. Use the formatting options to change predefined colors, ensuring that they provide sufficient contrast Text Alternatives for Images & Graphic Objects When using images or other graphical objects, such as charts and graphs, it is important to ensure people who cannot see the image also receive the information. You can do this by adding concise alternative text to each image. If an image is too complicated to describe in the alternative text alone (flow chart, artwork, etc.) provide a short text alternative as well as a longer description in the document s text. For very complex charts, another suggestion is to add the information in an accessible table at the end of the document or as an appendix. If you 42

43 also provide the chart data in an appendix, it could be easier for all users to use. Keep Objects in-line with Text When images and objects are inserted into Word 2010 documents they default to being an inline object. Inline objects keep their position on the page relative to a portion of the text. A floating object keeps its position relative to the page, while text flows around it. As content moves up or down on the page, the object stays where it was placed. To ensure that images and objects remain with the text that references it, always position it as an inline object. To prevent an image or object from floating 1. Select the object (control + shift then right arrow) 2. Go to ribbon and select the Page Layout tab (alt + p) 3. Select Position from the Arrange section 4. Select In Line with Text To test your images to be sure they are in-line 1. In the Ribbon Paragraph Group, find the symbol for paragraph and click/select this or (alt + h then 8) 2. Select your image (control +shift then right arrow) 3. If you see an anchor symbol next to the image, then it is not in-line! 43

44 Accessibility Checker 2010 & Beyond If you want to check the accessibility of your document or template, Word 2010 and beyond offers an Accessibility Checker to review your document against a set of possible issues that users with disabilities may experience. The Accessibility Checker classifies issues as: Error content that makes a file very difficult or impossible for people with disabilities to understand. Warning content that in most, but not all, cases makes a file difficult for people with disabilities to understand Tip content that people with disabilities can understand, but that might be better organized or presented in a way that would maximize their experience. To Use the Accessibility Checker If the Accessibility Checker is on your ribbon or quick access toolbar then you can simply select it there, skipping steps 1-3 below. If you have not added the Accessibility Checker to your ribbon, then: 1. Go to menu item: File 2. Select Info in the left window pane 3. The second box down just to right is Prepare for Sharing. Select this. Scroll to Check Accessibility and select it. 44

45 4. The Accessibility Checker task pane will now be to the right of your document. 5. Under Inspection Results, a list of issues will appear if a potential accessibility issues has been detected. 6. Select specific issue whether an Error, Warning or Tip to see additional information on the issue detected. 7. Follow the steps provided to fix or revise the content. 45

46 What the Accessibility Checker Can t Check Automated, accessibility testing tools provide a good baseline check for accessibility, but the documents still need a human to check the pages. The Accessibility Checking won t check: Color Contrast If color alone is used to convey meaning. Choice of type and size of font White space If ALT text clearly represents the meaning If text should be a Heading 1 (Title), Heading 2 etc. If text should be a Bulleted or Numbered List 46

47 If tables are used for layout or data If images have text in them (like a text box or smart art) and really would be better presented as text. Save As The "docx" format is the default file format for documents created in Word 2007 and newer. The format has some advantages (such as smaller file size), but is not as widely supported as the old "doc" format. Although there is a free download that allows users to open the newer format in older versions of Word, some content will be lost in the conversion process. If the Word file is going to end up on the web, or if you re going to send it to someone and are not doing anything that relies on the newer docx format, consider saving files as Word Document (*.doc) in Office 2007 and Even better, save your file in rich text rich text format! (RTF). RTF is often the best way to preserve a document s layout and presentation when Word is not available. Its major drawback is its large file size, especially with documents containing many graphics. Other formats, such as PDF and HTML, produce smaller files, but may require more work to preserve formatting and maintain accessibility. Learn more about saving as RTF /Making%20Text%20Legible-Brochure.pdf 47

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