{"id":8406,"date":"2012-05-22T16:26:50","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T20:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/webservices\/?page_id=8406"},"modified":"2012-05-22T16:26:50","modified_gmt":"2012-05-22T20:26:50","slug":"creating-accessible-documents","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webworkshops\/accessibility\/creating-accessible-documents\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Accessible Documents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Creating accessible documents means that people who have visual impairments, people who are blind, and people with learning disabilities can access your document.<\/p>\n

Whether your end product is a word document or a PDF, there are a few simple practices that will help ensure accessibility to a wider audience. Generally speaking, it\u2019s much easier to create a document with accessibility in mind then it is to \u201cfix\u201d an inaccessible document.<\/p>\n

1. Text flow \/ order<\/h2>\n

People who are blind can use screen reading software that reads text out loud, in order to navigate and access content. In order to help them navigate through your document it is useful to use styles in Microsoft Office documents to identify headings, body and captions.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong> proper use of styles also makes creating an automated table of contents for your document possible<\/p>\n

PDF files use tags to guide screen readers and help identify the order of text and images that will be read out loud. If you have identified each block of text in you document using styles, then the tags will be \u00a0generated automatically\u00a0when converting to PDF.<\/p>\n

Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n