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Accessible documents

Events


No upcoming events at this time.

This is the companion guide for the "Making your documents accessible workshop" presented for the:

  • Equity Office's workshop series (Tuesday, February 27 and March 26, 2024)
  • Digital Skill-Share conference (Thursday, February 9, 2023)
  • Equity Office's workshop series (Wednesday, March 29, 2023)
  • Faculty of Fine Arts (Thursday, May 4, 2023)

Guide created by Pamela Carson, Web Services Librarian (pamela.carson@concordia.ca).

 

Presentation materials

How to make your documents accessible

PowerPoint presentation

Presentation script

How to make your documents accessible: Advanced level

PowerPoint presentation

Checklist

Set the document language

Add a title

Headings

  • Headings are used and in logical order (H1, H2, etc.)
  • No empty headings

Text

  • Text is actual text (not an image of text)
  • Font size is at least 11 pts
  • Abbreviations are spelled out the first time they are used
  • Optional: Check the reading level

Lists are actual lists

Tables

  • Are used for data (not for layout)
  • No merged or split cells
  • Tables have headings

Links

  • Links should have descriptive text that could stand alone and be understandable (avoid “Read more” or “Click here”)
  • Don’t have multiple links with the same text that go to different locations

Images

  • Use alt text or mark as decorative
  • Avoid redundancy in the alt text
  • Use the “wrap text” style

Colours

  • Make sure colours are high contrast

2 methods for converting to PDF

  1. Acrobat tab in Word or PowerPoint or File > Save as Adobe PDF
  2. Open Acrobat, File > Create > PDF from file

Do not use: Print to PDF (you will lose all of the accessibility structure).

Additional resources

Concordia University

Adobe Acrobat for faculty and staff, Concordia IT

Web Accessibility Training, University Communication Services

Document templates

Policies, standards and guidelines

Policy on Accessibility and Accomodation for Students and Employees (PRVPA-14)

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0)

Standard sur l'accessibilité des sites Web (Secrétariat du Conseil du trésor, Gouvernement du Québec)

How-to

Microsoft Word - Creating Accessible Documents (WebAIM)

PDF Accessibility - Converting Documents to PDFs (WebAIM)

What’s up doc? Creating accessible documents for your website (McGill)

 

Research and further reading

Beck-Winchatz, B., and Riccobono, M.A. (2008). Advancing participation of blind students in science, technology, engineering, and math. Advances in Space Research, 42(11), 1855–1858. doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2007.05.080

Bell, E. C., and Silverman, A. M. (2018). Rehabilitation and employment outcomes for adults who are blind or visually impaired: An updated report. Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, 8(1). https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/jbir/jbir18/jbir080101.html

Bhowmick, A., & Hazarika, S. M. (2017). An insight into assistive technology for the visually impaired and blind people: state-of-the-art and future trends. Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces, 11(2), 149-172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12193-016-0235-6

Centre for Gender Advocacy, Concordia University. (2020, October 7). Mapping project. 

Corn A. L. Bell J. K. Andersen E. Bachofer C. Jose R. T., & Perez A. M. (2003). Providing access to the visual environment: A model of low vision services. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 97, 261–272. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0145482X0309700502

Cryer H. (2013). Teaching STEM subjects to blind and partially sighted students: Literature review and resources (Literature review #6). Birmingham, UK: RNIB Centre for Accessible Information. Retrieved from 

Dumpel, R. G., Silva, A. S., Pereira, R. dos S., Delou, C., & Castro, H. C. (2021). Who said that we do not see? An inclusion strategy for students with visual impairment using cell models and a modeling-clay-based evaluation method. British Journal of Visual Impairment. https://doi.org/10.1177/02646196211036410

Ely R., Wall Emerson R., Maggiore T., O'Connell T., & Hudson L. (2006). Increased content knowledge of students with visual impairments as a result of extended descriptions. Journal of Special Education Technology, 21(3), 31–43. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/016264340602100304

Fast, D., & Wild, T. (2018). Teaching science through inquiry based field experiences using orientation and mobility. Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities, 21(1), 29-39. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1194077

Gupta, R., Balakrishnan, M., & Rao, P. V. M. (2017). Tactile diagrams for the visually impaired. IEEE Potentials, 36(1), 14-18. Doi: 10.1109/MPOT.2016.2614754

Hartsoe, J. K., & Barclay, S. R. (2017) Universal design and disability: Assessing faculty beliefs, knowledge, and confidence in universal design for instruction. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 30(3), 223-236.

Jehoel S. McCallum D. Rowell J., & Ungar S. (2006). An empirical approach on the design of tactile maps and diagrams: The cognitive tactualization approach. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 24, 67–75, https://doi.org/10.1177/026461960606340

Lahav, O., Hagab, N., El Kader, S.A.,Levy, S. T., & Talis, V. (2018). Listen to the models: Sonified learning models for people who are blind. Computers & Education, 127, 141-153, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.08.020

Li, Y.-F., Zhang, D., Zhang, Q., & Dulas, H. (2020). University faculty attitudes and actions toward universal design: A literature review. Journal of Inclusive Postsecondary Education, 2(1), https://doi.org/10.13021/jipe.2020.2531

National Federation of the Blind. (2016). Blindness Statistics.

Rowland, M. P., & Bell, E. C. (2012). Measuring the attitudes of sighted college students toward blindness. Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, 2(2). https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/jbir/jbir12/jbir020202.html

Sanderson, N. C., Kessel, S., & Chen, W. (2022). What do faculty members know about universal design and digital accessibility? A qualitative study in computer science and engineering disciplines. Universal Access in the Information Society, 21, 351-365. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10209-022-00875-x

Statistics Canada (2022, December 2). Measuring disability in Canada.

Udo, J. P., & Fels, D. I. (2009). The rogue poster-children of universal design: closed captioning and audio description. Journal of Engineering Design, 21(2-3), 207-221. https://doi.org/10.1080/09544820903310691

W3C (2015). Cognitive accessibility user research.

WebAIM (2021). Screen Reader Survey #9.

WebAIM (2022). The WebAIM Million: The 2022 report on the accessibility of the top 1,000,000 home pages. 

Wilfrid Laurier University (2015). Enabling access through web renewal: Handbook. 

 

 
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