Creating Accessible Documents
Background
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as amended in 1998, requires all electronic documents to be accessible to people with disabilities. This includes the requirement that they should be able to be read with screen readers. PDF is the most common electronic document found on web sites and should always be made fully accessible. Note that all files produced, even if they are not placed on the web, are required by Section 508 to be accessible since these files can be distributed to the public using other methods besides the web. This includes all Microsoft Office documents such as Word and PowerPoint.
MS Office 2003 Accessibility
Online Course for Developing Accessible MS Office Documents
Need to have your audio turned on. Applies to all MS Office 2003 programs.
Quick Reference Card - Create An Accessible Office Document
About Creating Accessible Office Documents
Tips for Creating Accessible PDFs
Be sure to check the "standard" conversion setting before you convert your PDF from MS Word.
You have to manually set the language to English in Acrobat after you create the PDF.
Be sure to add "alt tags" to your images while the document is still a Word file.
There are specific instructions for creating accessible pdf files in this document:
Creating Accessible Forms (221 kb PDF) .
Verifying PDF Accessibility
You can check the accessibility of your pdf document after it is produced by taking the following steps:
1. Open the pdf in Adobe Acrobat Professional (the latest version is Adobe Acrobat 9, you should always use the latest version if you are producing pdf documents).
2. Select "Advanced" tab from the top menu bar, then select "Accessibility" and the "Full Check"
3. Select the "Start Checking" button at the bottom of the window that opens.
4. If it finds no problems, then you will get a message informing you that nonon-compliance issues were found. But it it does find accessibility issues that need to be corrected, it will produce a report for you to review in the left column of the document. The report will always tell you how to correct the problems.
You can also hear how screen readers handle your document by opening the pdf file in Acrobat, selecting "View" from the top menu bar, selecting "Read Out Loud" from the subsequent drop down menu and then selecingt "Activate Read Out Loud". You can "Deactivate Read Out Loud" by following the same procedure.
PDF Accessibility Training and Helpful Guides
Creating Accessible Forms (221 kb PDF)
Word to PDF Quick Reference Card (1.22 mb PDF)
Excellent two page quick reference guide
Adobe® Acrobat® 9 Pro Accessibility Guide: Using the Accessibility Checker (153 kb PDF)
This document describes how to check accessibility for existing PDF files. Even if you generate an accessible PDF file from an authoring application, you should still verify the result using an accessibility checker.
http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/acrobat/pdf/A9-accessible-pdf-from-word.pdf
Adobe® Acrobat® 9 Pro Accessibility Guide: Creating Accessible PDF from Microsoft® Word
Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Accessibility Guide: PDF Accessibility Repair Workflow (803 kb PDF)
Directions for making existing PDFs accessible
http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/acrobat/training.html
A comprehensive overview of the various accessibilty features in Acrobat 9
http://www.hhs.gov/web/policies/pdfaccessibility/step2.html
An excellent overview of creating accessible Word files by the Department of Health & Human Services
Accessible Web Pages
The Reclamation web template is designed with accessibility built in and web authoring staff members are required to use Adobe Dreamweaver to add the content and produce the web pages. Dreamweaver has accessibility features built in which help the web author to make the content accessible by adding image alt tags, etc. All the authors of Reclamation websites are required to sign a document annually certifying that all their web pages (and all Reclamation documents linked on their webpages) meet all the requirements of Section 508 Accessibility and Section 515 Quality of Information. Any questions regarding accessiblility for web pages should be addressed to the appropriate regional member of the Reclamation Web Team or the Reclamation Web Manager.
Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Accessibility Overview
Audio/Video
NOTE: Please don't forget that all audio recordings should have a transcript available. Videos that are produced must include captioning, not just a separately available transcript.
Thoroughly Modern Multimedia: Make Your Videos, Audio Files, Podcasts, and Other Multimedia Section 508 Compliant and Accessible (Webcontent.gov)Additional Reference Websites
http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/
Adobe accessibility website
http://www.accesselearning.net/
Access E-Learning
from Georgia Tech
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/usability/accessibility/creating_pdfs.shtml
Comprehensive information from all over the federal government for creating accessbile PDFs
Reclamation's Website Accessibility Policy
This link is included in the footer of every Reclamation internet web page. The footer is automatically placed on each web page by the web server and does not need to be added by the person developing the web page.
DOI's Website Accessibility Policy
This link is included in the footer of every DOI internet web page.
Section 508 home page - http://www.section508.gov/
Access Board - http://www.access-board.gov/508.htm
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) - http://www.w3.org/WAI/
Last updated: 11/12/09