Instructional Design & Tecnology

Microsoft Office gives you a convenient Accessibility Checker to help you create more accessible digital materials. When creating MS Word files for your students to access  (in print and electronically)  there are several accessibility guidelines that must be followed. These guidelines relate to six topics:  Styles   Structure   Data Tables   Clear-text Links   Alternative Text (i.e., alt text)   Color and Contrast Start with Styles Headings, Lists, and Emphasis   As we talk about different types of document authoring tools, there will be some things which keep coming up. So, it is best to talk about them when we're looking at Word. In Word, many of these formatting issues should be controlled through the Styles menu to help people who use assistive technologies to navigate content in a logical, sequential manner. Adjusting font size, color and formatting, such as using bold or underline, ...

Using List Styles Any content that is organized as a list should be created using the list controls that are provided. There are usually one or more controls for adding lists. Using the available tools to create lists helps students using screen readers or assistive technologies understand how the content is organized. When a screen reader navigates a list, the screen reader informs the student that they’re on a list and informs them of how many items are in the list. Common List Mistakes A common mistake is to create your own “list” by typing in asterisks (*), dashes (-), or numbers before each line and pressing the tab key or space bar to move over.  MS Word, depending on the version you use will attempt to create a list for you at this point. Not using the list tool to properly format a list can make content more difficult to navigate by users of assistive technology. List Types For our purposes there are two types of lists that might be included in a document or w...

Structural Tips for Microsoft Word Headings and Lists provide the basis of good document structure. Layout, spacing, pagination, layout, and blank characters are also helpful structural considerations. Note: the the most frequent error in using the accessibility checker is four or more blank characters. This error occurs if someone hits the space, tab, or enter key more than three times. The solution is to use three or fewer blank spaces (tabs or hard returns). These often occur is because we use tabs or spaces to format our documents. There are ways to achieve certain looks which are accessible. Under the Home tab in your Word Ribbon, you have "Paragraph Tools" to help align columns of text and increase or decrease indentations. Under the "Layout Tab" you have several more options, such as: Columns Page and Line Breaks Increase and decrease indentation Using the built-in formatting tools make your finished product look more consistent w...

Tables organize information visually and help you show relationships between things. Learn how to set up tables so they can be read out loud to people who use a screen reader. To add a header row to a table Choose Insert > Table to insert a table. Choose the number of boxes you want across to create columns, and then choose the number of boxes you want down to create rows for your table. Note: When you add a table to your document, two new tabs to appear in the ribbon: Design and Layout. These are the Table Tools. On the Design tab, choose the Table Styles Options group, and then choose Header row. Other options include Banded Rows or Total Row. Your table now has a header row. This means that, behind the scenes, Word and any assistive technologies can communicate intelligently about the table. Add column headings Place your cursor in the first cell on the top row of your new table. Type the name for this column and then press Tab to move from one column to th...

A URL ( uniform resource locator) or web address is a location on the web, such as  www.ndm.edu/nursing . For a screen reader user, a URL is problematic as the screen reader attempts to read out the full address one letter at a time. On longer web addresses, a screen reader can lose or skip some of a URL as it attempts to read it. The way to fix this is to make a natural language hyperlink such as the  MSN News Page . Two Rules of Thumb: Don't show the actual URL, and Do not write "click here." Instructions for Adding Hyperlinks in Word To add a hyperlink to your Microsoft Word document, do the following: Type a meaningful title for your hyperlink. Select the title text. On the Insert tab, in the Links group, select Hyperlink to open the "Insert Hyperlink" dialog box. (Alternatively, you may right-click the selected text.) With the Link to: Existing File or Web Page option selected, insert the link's full URL into the Address bo...

Make sure color is not your only method of conveying important information. In other words, do not use color alone to: convey meaning, make a distinction, make a comparison, or set something off or apart from the rest of the page. In the image above, the red field AND alert icon indicate an error to most people. To someone who has trouble distinguishing red on-screen, they can see the error because of the icon indicators in each field. If you categorize something by color alone, those who are color blind or blind will not benefit from the color distinction. Color Contrast Studies have shown that around 8% of men and 0.5% of women have color vision deficiency (CVD or color blindness). There are some colors which are not easily seen for individuals who have color blindness. Forms of color blindness include Protanopia (red),  Deuteranopia (green),  Tritanopia (blue), and  Monochromacy (no color). These individuals need sufficient color contrast to ...

Any images or graphics (pictures, illustrations, charts, tables, and graphs) that you place into a Word document can be made accessible by using these three elements: Position the figure "in line" with text. Add Alt Text - Alternate Text Include a caption 1. Make it In Line With Text Images that are floating, positioned behind, or in front of text will not be picked up by screen readers. You must make the image "in line" with your text. However, you do have some control over where your image is displayed. For instance, you can use left, right, or centered justifications to move the image, or set a tab stop to push it left to right. You can also align it using columns. 2. Adding Alt Text For images, illustrations, , follow these steps: Right click on the image > format the picture,  in the side panel which comes up there is a cross-shaped icon in which you can enter the alt text.   Enter the alt text in the DESCRIPTION field, not the title...