Ally | CSN

Word Phase 1 (Fall 2019)

In order to make sure any document you create is accessible, you need to pay attention to four main areas in your document:

Heading Styles
Image Descriptions (textual description for non-textual content called "alt text")
Identifying Complex Data and Tables 
Conveying meaning with text color and highlighting

You address these areas by ensuring that your authoring tools have what it takes to accomplish the following tasks:

When you address these three concerns  within your digital documents, you help ensure a basic level of accessibility that will allow most students to access your course successfully.

The following are tutorials for specific versions of Word:

Video demonstration of creating an accessible Word document.

Images and Illustrations Phase 1 (Fall 2019)

In order to make images and complex visual illustration accessible, you need to add a text alternative to the image that conveys the same information as the image itself. This text is called "alternative text" or "alt text".

Alt text is read by a screen reader or other assistive device. It communicates the purpose of the graphic, not its appearance. This allows screen reader users to benefit from the information being conveyed by the image, even if they cannot see it.

Accessible images are beneficial in many situations, such as:

People using screen readers: The text alternative can be read aloud or rendered as Braille
People using speech input software: Users can put the focus onto a button or linked image with a single voice command
People browsing speech-enabled websites: The text alternative can be read aloud
Mobile web users: Images can be turned off, especially for data-roaming

What and When to Write the Alt Tag

WebAIM's alt tag page shares many different image situations and how to alt tag each image.

W3.org created an alt tag decision tree .

HOW TO ADD ALTERNATIVE TEXT

Word documents

PowerPoint slides

Canvas

Canvas Attributes Textbox

The Attributes field will populate the Alt text field [1], which is the name of the image. For better accessibility, type a description of the image contents. To add the image as decorative, click the Decorative image checkbox [2]. If the Decorative Image checkbox is selected, the alternative text field is grayed out.

Phases 2 and 3 (Spring 2020)

Phase 2 will focus on PowerPoints and PDFs.

Phase 3 will focus on closed captioning of videos.

More to come!

PowerPoint Phase 2 (Spring 2020)

owerPoint presentations tend to be highly visual, and people who are blind or have low vision can understand them more easily if you create your slides with accessibility in mind.

The following are key best practices for creating PowerPoint presentations that are accessible to people with disabilities.

When creating a new slide , use the built-in slide layout.
Give every slide a unique title .
Provide alternative text for figures, images, and graphics.
Create data tables with column headers and ensure proper reading order in tables.
Write meaningful links that indicate link's destination.
Use sufficient color contrast. (WebAIM's color contrast checker )
Use the PowerPoint's built-in accessibility checker
Microsoft's "Make your PowerPoint Presentations Accessible " includes the above best practices and links to tutorials.

Syracuse University Accessible IT shows you the techniques that make PowerPoint presentations more accessible.

Questions?

Questions: Contact Dr. Terry Norris at: Contact Us

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