How to easily create accessible documents for the vast majority of your students.

1. THE REALITY OF
ACCESSIBILITY
Creating
accessible
Documents
Kevin Scritchfield | Instructional Designer | Fresno City College

2. How to Create Accessible
Documents
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid

3. THE REALITY OF
ACCESSIBILITY
Creating
accessible
Documents
Kevin Scritchfield | Instructional Designer | Fresno City College

4. The Reality: Who needs accessible
documents?
Blind or Sight-impaired People

5. What do they need?
By the time a blind person is
in college and especially has
been helped by DSP&S, they
either have a screen reader or
screen reading software on
their computer. Therefore,
they need a document that
the reader can navigate and
make sense of for them.

6. What do you mean by
‘Navigate’?
The screen reader is
built to read text - that’s
not a problem. It gets
more difficult when your
document has images,
tables, columns, links or
color in it.

7. Images need ‘Alt’ tags
This terminology comes from designing
web pages.
‘Alt’ means Alternative
‘Tags’ refer to the coding for the content of
the page.
So an ‘alt tag’ is an alternative tag for the
image - meaning text to describe the what
is in the image.
Alt Tag:
photo of a laptop on a small desk with a chair

8. As long as your content is pretty
basic - mainly text-based, then a
screen reader will be able to read
the table content cleanly and in
order. Column and row headers
would help though.
Tables
If you add images or vary the
column widths within differing
rows (merge cells) or make
extremely long tables, it makes it
more difficult for the reading
software.
Classroom Independent Work – Out of Class
Week
Weekly Topic and
Class Time
*Estimated Online Direct
Instruction Assignment
*Estimated Homework
Assignment
1
Problem Solving
& Critical
Thinking
4 hrs
Watch Video 1-1, 1-3 1 hr Assign. 1-1, 1-3 3 hrs
Set Theory
Watch Videos 2-1, 2-
2, 2-3 & 2-4
3 hrs
Assign. 2-1, 2-2, 2-
3, 2-4
6 hrs
2
Logic
4 hrs
Watch Videos 3-1, 3-
2, 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, 3-6
3 hrs
Assign. 3-1, 3-2, 3-
3, 3-4, 3-5, 3-6
9 hrs
3 Number Theory
& Sequences
4 hrs
Watch Videos 5-1, 5-
2, 5-3, 5-4, 5-5, 5-6
3 hrs
Assign. 5-1, 5-2, 5-
3, 5-4, 5-5, 5-6
9 hrs
Preparation for
& Taking
Midterm
9 hrs
4
Algebra:
Equations &
Inequalities
4 hrs
Watch Videos 6-1, 6-
2, 6-3, 6-4, 6-5
3 hrs
Assign. 6-1, 6-2, 6-
3, 6-4, 6-5
7 hrs
Algebra: Graphs,
Functions, &
Linear Systems
Watch Videos 7-1, 7-
2, 7-3
2 hrs Assign. 7-1, 7-2, 7-3 5 hrs
5
Measurement
4 hrs
Watch Videos 9-1, 9-
2, 9-3
2 hrs Assign. 9-1, 9–2, 9-3 5 hrs
Counting
Methods &
Probability
Theory
Watch Videos 11-1,
11-2, 11-3, 11-4
3 hrs
Assign. 11-1, 11-2,
11-3, 11-4
6 hrs
6 Geometry
4 hrs
Watch Videos 10-1,
10-2, 10-3, 10-4, 10-5
4 hrs
Assign. 10-1, 10-2,
10-3, 10-4, 10-5
7 hrs
Statistics
Watch Videos 12-1,
12-2, 12-3, 12-4
3 hrs
Assign. 12-1, 12-2,
12-3, 12-4
6 hrs
Preparation for
& Taking Final
12 hrs
Total Class Hrs 24 hrs
Total *Estimated
Online Hrs
27
hrs
Total *Estimated
HW Hrs
84 hrs
Total Carnegie Hrs (Class + Online + HW) = 135 hrs
Example on SlideShare —>

9. If you have text in multiple columns across a page without it being in a
table, then the reader will read one entire column on a page, then the
next column, and so on.
Columns

10. If you have links like this in a document:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tSD6MaQzxJhKBTgvxuajKyfhr
DD9gmm_7NLHIDMiDaQ/edit#gid=455256794
Can you guess what that sounds like when a screenreader converts that
to an audible voice?!
Therefore, you need to create links as a text title for the link (a
‘description’ of the site) and embed the real link inside that text.
For example: Link to Example site of Teslas
Links

11. Color contrast is actually what we
are talking about here, specifically
with text.
Color
The color of your text in
comparison to its background color.
And this is more for
sight-impaired people than the
blind.
We want our audience to
be able to read what we
put on the page.
We want our audience to
be able to read what we
put on the page.

12. Creating Accessible
Documents
We are going to assume that you are using Microsoft
Word to create your original document.
However, it is very important as to what version of Word
you are using. This is one major advantage to having the
newest version - at least 2013, but 2016 would be better!
Let’s look at a document in Word —>

13. Creating Accessible PDF’s
Once you have verified that you have an accessible
document in Word, then it is relatively easy to create an
accessible PDF. You have to be sure and export it out as
a PDF - not just ‘print’ it as a PDF.
Example in Word —>

14. Creating Accessible
PowerPoints
This is actually the same process as in Word - use the
‘Accessibility Checker’ tool.

15. THE REALITY OF
ACCESSIBILITY
Creating
accessible
Documents
Kevin Scritchfield | Instructional Designer | Fresno City College
kevin.scritchfield@fresnocitycollege.edu | @kscritch |