Accessible Web Publishing Tool for Microsoft Office Jon Gunderson, Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign

Why was the Web Invented?

Answer Share information between scientists Interoperation with computer systems Public standards

What are some of the myths of the web? Graphical medium Users have no control over rendering Authors have all the control over rendering

Problem Instructors are not web developers Instructors don’t know about accessibility More instructional materials on the web There are a lot of instructors

Size of the Problem

Knowledge of Office Accessibility Techniques

Problems with Power Point Web Publishing Features Limited ability to create text equivalents Default format is VML Default markup can only be viewed in latest browsers Markup does not meet WCAG W3C requirements

Accessible Repair Process 1. Create materials 2. Check with accessibility tool 3. Decipher accessibility report 4. Fix accessibility problems 5. Repeat process until no problems

Accessible Repair Problems Time consuming Difficult to understand reports Authoring tools like MS Office do not support editing of markup Results are often still inaccessible

Accessible Design Default markup uses universal design techniques Authors do not need to know about accessibility No extra time involved with creating accessible materials

Goals of the Project Accessible HTML by default No knowledge of accessibility or HTML Prompt users for accessibility information Automatically generate text equivalents

Demonstration of Wizard

Features Text and graphical Keyboard support (Accesskeys) Text tables for charts Navigation controls Orientation information Valid HTML

Next Steps Improve support for Word Provide support for Excel Text equivalents for graphics – Images of tabular tables – Organizational charts Improved styling options SVG output

Acknowledgements National Institute of Disability Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) (Grant# H133G030079) Division of Rehabilitation – Education Services Trace Research and Development Center (NIDRR Grant# H133E980008) College of Applied Life Studies University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign

How do I get it? Google for “Microsoft Office Accessibility” or “PowerPoint Accessibility”