Accessible Documents & Presentations By Amy Maes, DNOM 1
Overview Accessibility: What am I required to do? Disability Characteristics Creating an Accessible Word Document & PowerPoint Presentation v2010 2
Effective Communication: ADA Ensure that the person with a vision, hearing, or speech disability can communicate with, receive information from, and convey information to, the covered entity. The rules apply to communicating with the person who is receiving the covered entity s goods or services as well as with that person s parent, spouse, or companion in appropriate circumstances. 3
Why Make Documents Accessible? Good for Everyone! Usable: Anyone can understand it Versatile: Easy to Update Convertible: Can be adapted to other formats Legal: It can be required for effective communication. 4
Disability Characteristics Low Vision Blind Hard of hearing & Deaf Dyslexia Color Blindness 5
Low Vision or Blind Font Size 20 pt. or Larger Explain your presentation with directional cues Top left, bottom right corner Read all the Text Large Print Handout (full slide) of Presentation Send the presentation out in advance. 6
Hard of Hearing & Deaf Handouts show notes Advancing to the next slide Pause to let people read it before saying anything. This will allow people who are deaf and everyone else in the audience to read the slide before you start talking. Always provide the presentation to the Interpreter or CART provider if one is requested. 7
Dyslexia and Color Blindness Dyslexia Font style Keep slides clear, simple, and uncrowded Use bold to emphasis the information Color Blindness Avoid color combinations which may cause visual stress When choosing a design make sure the background color and text color follow the color coding guidelines 8
What are Print Disabilities? Vision Related, Blind, Low Vision, Color Blind, Perceptual Physical: Difficulty lifting, positioning, or holding books and paper and turning pages Learning Disability/Dyslexia/Processing Issues Cognitive: Unable to read or to gain meaning from standard print materials. 9
Color Issues Use of color alone Fill in the questions marked in red Poor color contrast or conflicting backgrounds. Color Blindness issues. 10
Example for Color Blindness: Bad Good All fields marked in red must be filled out Name: DOB: Address: Do you own a pet?: Email: How Many people live in your home? All fields marked with * must be filled out *Name: *DOB: Address: Do you own a pet?: *Email: How Many people live in your home? 11
Example of Poor Contrast Please see the booklet ( Effective Color Contrast PDF) Other links on the resource handout. 12
Color Analyzer 13 If you have any doubts about your color contrast, you can download the Color Analyzer (see Resource Handout) Enter or choose the colors you plan to use and it will tell you if they have sufficient contrast!
Font Choice Matters 14 Avoid unusual shaped letters Use Sans Serif fonts. If use Serif fonts, keep them simple Commonly available fonts No condensed typefaces Size is different depending on the font style. Word Art Arial Black Arial Bell MT Bradley Hand ITC Comic Sans MS Freesia UPC Microsoft Sans Serif
More about Formatting Color: Most effective is black and white Use of other color on larger text can be ok Leading Space (between lines of text): 25 30% of point size Letter Spacing: monospaced Avoid Justified Text! Don t hyphenate words (turn off auto hyphenate). 15
Example of Spacing BAD GOOD 16
More White Space Page Margins Between paragraphs Images Tables, graphs and other objects 17
Printing Your Document Avoid glossy paper Colored paper contrast issues? How multiple pages are bound/attached together 18
Large Print Spacing Font Style Contrast Font Size 19 best to ask 18 pt and up
Large Print Format People with low vision of all ages can benefit from large print materials. Given the unique needs everyone has, it always best to ask if there is a font preference or size that would work best if possible. Some things to keep in mind when creating a large print document: Everyone s needs will differ somewhat depending on characteristics and preferences. It is generally understood that the characteristics which have the greatest effect on the readability of large print documents can be ranked as follows: spacing, font size, contrast, and font style. 20
Large Print - Spacing Line spacing of at least 1.5 is preferred to provide good readability and help reduce eye strain. Large print documents that display the text in blocked paragraphs which are aligned left are preferable. Double spacing between paragraphs is necessary for readability. 21
Large Print Font Size & Style Font Size and Style What is effectively large varies by the person and font size alone isn t always a good indicator. Different font types can look quite different with the same size. In general, at least an 18 point, and preferably a 20 point, bold, sans serif, mono or fixed space font is desirable. Adobe's Verdana, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial; Linotype's Futura Light Bolded; and Typography's Gotham Rounded fonts currently offer optimal readability for large print documents The use of italics is not acceptable for low vision readers Titles and headings should be larger than the text of the document and contain both upper and lower case letters. Titles and headings should be aligned left where possible. 22
Large Print - Contrast Color and hue are not as important as high visual color contrast between a background and a text to those with low vision. Additional Information We highly recommend you review the following resources! Best Practices and Guidelines for Large Print Documents used by the Low Vision Community Lighthouse International Accessible Print Design 23
Reading Level/Comprehension Plain Language Keep it Simple Acronyms Checking in MS Word ReWordify 7 Different Readability Scales 24
Readability Stats in Word 25 The Readability section will list the following information about the document: Passive Sentences - Percent of passive sentences in the document. Flesch Reading Ease This test rates text on a 100- point scale. The higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level This test rates text on a U.S. school grade level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand the document.
26 Any Questions?
A List of Myths - If I 27 Myths: Just give up, Creating accessible materials is too difficult. Just enlarge on a copy machine or put it in all CAPS. Just send it to a friend who uses a screen reader, they said it read just fine, therefore it must be accessible. Just label all images with alternative text makes an electronic document accessible. Just make sure the documents are in black and white to be accessible. Just don t really worry about the font because it doesn t matter. Just try to justify text in all my documents to make sure it fits across the page for readability;
I Got No Style Using styles 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. Two Ways Format Your Document -Direct Formatting and Using Styles Using Styles: The Correct Way 28
Finding Styles A style is a set of formatting characteristics, such as font name, size, color, paragraph alignment and spacing. 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.) 29
30 Image of Style Location
Am I Heading the Right Way? Headings have built in styles and are designed to work with the other sub-headings. If you use headings, make sure they are in the proper order. You should use headings like an outline in your document. When you use them properly, Heading 1 would be followed by Heading 2 and so on. 31
Images & Alternative Text You will want to include alternative text or alt text for all the images in your document so people using screen reader technology have equal access to your information. Alt text should include information about the content of the image it s purpose in your document. If there is any meaningful text in the image, include this in your alternative text. You don t need to use the phrases "image of..." or "graphic of..." to describe the image. It is usually apparent to the user that it is an image. Typically, no more than a few words are necessary, though rarely a short sentence or two may be appropriate. 32
Alternative Text (Alt Text) Consider the purpose, significance and context of the image What needs alt text? Images, photos Charts Shapes, SmartArt graphics Text boxes 33
Again, Font Choice Matters Spacing of lines and letters. Avoid typefaces which have unusual shaped letters Use Sans Serif fonts. Don t use capital letters for emphasis. Know that size is different depending on the font style. Word Art Arial Black Arial Bell MT Bradley Hand ITC Comic Sans MS Freesia UPC Microsoft Sans Serif 34
Setting the Default Font Set your Font Choice for the Entire Document Go to Style Group in the Ribbon Select Change Styles Select Font Scroll down to Create New Theme Fonts. In the pop-up box, select your preferred font for headings and body text. 35
Text Boxes Did you know that for people who use screen reading technology, text boxes can be treated as images and not text? As an image, the only way your reader will get the information is if you include alternative text for the text box. This would only work if the information contained in the box is no longer than a couple short sentences. The best option is not to use these. To see if you have a text box in the document, you can: Go to the View Tab Select the Draft view (alt + w then e) If it s a text box, it won t show up in this view. 36
Accessibility Checker Go to the File tab and select Info then select Check for Accessibility Issues. The result will appear on the right hand side of screen. 37
What isn t Checked? Color: Colorblind issues, If color alone is used to convey meaning. Choice of type and size of font Keep it Simple: if cluttered If ALT text is correctly used If images have text in them (like a text box or smart art) and really would be better in the body of the document. 38
39 Questions about Word Accessibility?
PowerPoint Design When picking a design look at color contrast. Is it easy to read or do you find yourself squinting? Have you chosen the right Font and Font Size? Are there enough placeholders in the layout to match your content? Are there text justification concerns? Avoid scroll designs! 40
Layout Choose a different layout if you would like to add more information instead of adding text boxes On the home tab, go to slides Select Layout 41
How to Select Layout On the Home tab find Slides and Select New Slide In the dropdown, find the slide layout you want and select it. To change the layout of an existing slide, right click on it somewhere outside of the content boxes. Select Layout Choose the layout you need. 42
Find an Accessible Design To find an accessible template, select File > New. In the Search for Online templates and themes text field, type accessible templates and press Enter. In the search results, select a suitable template. In the template preview window, select Create. 43
Slide Master View The slide master view allows you to adjust the layouts and text for the entire presentation. 44
Getting to the Slide Master View On your home tab, select View Find Master Views and then Slide Master What can you do? Adjust font, size, color etc. Change backgrounds Insert a logo with alternative text Adjust placeholders boxes 45
Different Font Styles Can you read this in the back? Can you read this in the back? Can you read this in the back? Can you read this in the back? Can you read this in the back? 46
Contrast Grayscale Trying turning your screen to grayscale and seeing if all your color combinations work and if it is easy to read 47
Keep it Simple Don t clutter the slide, limit text and content Avoid use of animations and transitions Don t embed video or audio Watch out for rivers of white - justification 48
Content Considerations Avoid using text in images as the sole method of conveying important information. Use Descriptive Hyperlink Text Give every slide a title that is unique 49
Selection Pane Go to your drawing tab on your Home ribbon and click on arrange Drop down options should appear, The last option on the bottom is "selection pane" Click on it, this should open your selection and visibility toolbar 50
Reading Order Review the Selection Pane The order in which a screen reader will read your PowerPoint. Ironically, it reads from the bottom to the top of the list you view in the selection pane vs. the outline view. 51
Selection Pane Use The selection and visibility toolbar will appear on the right hand side of your screen. This shows the order in which a screen reader will read your PowerPoint 52
Hiding Slide Title Make a title invisible on the slide, but still voiced by screen readers. On the Home tab, in the Drawing group, select Arrange. In the Arrange menu, select Selection Pane. In the Selection pane, locate the Title text box, and then click the eye icon next to it. 53
Outline View 54 On the home tab, go to view In Presentation Views go to Outline View This will show a text outline on the right side of the screen.
About Outline View If text you see on the slide doesn t show in outline view, it s in a text box, not a placeholder. You can also use outline view to delete extra blank bullets and lines. 55
Alternative Text 56 To add alt text to an image right click and scroll down to "Format Picture select this. A new window will appear and the very last option on the left hand side will be "alt text". Enter alt text in the description box
Alt Text in Office 365 Can auto-generate for some images Can mark image as decorative 57
Accessibility Checker Select file tab Select the info On the right side select the tab that says "Check for Issues". There will be a drop down menu, the second button is "Check Accessibility". 58
Results of Checker Accessibility Checker bar will come up on the right side of your document. The left picture is circled in red showing you all the different types of messages that could potentially come up. The right picture, that is circled in green, is showing that there are no accessibility issues. 59
PowerPoint- What isn t Checked? Color: Colorblind issues, If color alone is used to convey meaning. Choice of type and size of font Keep it Simple: if cluttered If ALT text is correctly used If images have text in them (like a text box or smart art) and really would be better presented as text. 60
61 Questions/Comments?
62 Thank You!