Carleton University is always striving to build an accessible campus community with all resources as available as possible to every member of its community. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) also stated the intention of achieving complete accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities by 2025. Creating accessible documents is one thing you can do to help.
What are accessible documents?
Accessible documents provide all text and other elements in an accessible format, so that everyone can access the information in the documents in some manner. People with disabilities often use assistive technologies to access information in a particular way that they are able to understand. For example, people who have visual impairments may use screen readers to hear the information on screens. A screen reader uses a Text-To-Speech (TTS) engine to translate on-screen information into speech, which can be heard through earphones or speakers. To learn more about Assistive Technology, check out the term in the glossary.
How to create accessible documents?
In order to create accessible PDF documents, there are two steps you need to follow:
- Creating an accessible Word document
- Converting accessible Word documents to accessible PDF documents:
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