The document discusses accessibility features and issues in LibreOffice. It describes LibreOffice's accessibility for blind, low vision, deaf, motor impaired, and cognitively impaired users. Key features covered include applying styles, alternative text for images, language identification, and exporting to accessible PDF. Issues mentioned include lost alternative text when images are modified and language identification issues in Impress and Calc exports. The presentation was given at FOSDEM to discuss the AEGIS project and accessible authoring.
1. Accessible Authoring with
LibreOffice
Christophe Strobbe
K.U.Leuven, Belgium
christophe.strobbe@esat.kuleuven.be
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
2. Overview
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AEGIS project
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Accessibility: short introduction
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LibreOffice Writer features
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Accessible authoring
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Export to PDF
●
LibreOffice Accessibility Issues
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
3. The AEGIS Project
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EC-funded project, Sep. 2008-Feb.2012
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20+ partners, including Oracle (Sun),
AOL, RIM, Vodafone Foundation, RNIB,
K.U.Leuven, …
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Access to desktop, RIAs and mobile
applications
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Many open-source “prototypes” /
products
●
http://www.aegis-project.eu/
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
4. Accessibility: Introduction (1)
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Blind users
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No pointing device
=> keyboard access
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UI & content rendered as Braille and/or
synthetic speech
●
= sequential access
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Access depends on text alternatives and
other metadata exposed through
(accessibility) APIs
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
5. Accessibility: Introduction
●
Other vision deficiencies:
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Colour blindness (red-green)
●
Loss of peripheral vision, loss of central
vision, blurred vision, …
●
Persons who need magnification (even
x32 or x64)
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
6. Accessibility: Introduction
●
Hearing-impaired users
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If congenitally deaf, native language =
sign language
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Captioning for video
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Transcripts for audio
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
7. Accessibility: Introduction
●
Motor-impaired users
●
Due to muscular dystrophy, multiple
sclerosis, …
●
Use of pointing device may be difficult,
even impossible
=> keyboard access
=> alternative input devices, e.g. eye
tracking, head tracking, … (see
Accessibility devroom)
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
8. Accessibility: Introduction
●
Dyslexia, learning disabilities, cognitive
impairments
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Make text easier to read
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Use illustrations
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Examples: 15 AEGIS personas
http://www.aegis-project.eu/ > Results
> Personas (Creative Commons)
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
9. LibreOffice Writer Features: 1
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File formats:
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OpenDocument Format (ODT)
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export to/save as PDF, XHTML,
DocBook, DocX, ...
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export to DAISY, Braille
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Export to accessible document requires
accessible source document
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
11. Document Structure
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Document title: Title &
Subtitle
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Structure: Heading 1,
Heading 2, ...
●
Find empty headings
with Navigator ->
“Clear formatting” in
styles
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
12. Lists, Columns
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Lists:
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Toolbar buttons for unordered and
numbered lists
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List styles (more fiddly)
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Columns
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Don’t use tables or whitespace to fake
columns
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Format -> Columns...
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
13. Visual Design
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Font faces designed for use on screens:
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Sans-serif: Verdana, Trebuchet MS
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Serif: Georgia
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Avoid justified text (rivers of
whitespace)
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Avoid long spans of text in ALL CAPS or
italics
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
14. Images and Illustrations
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Add alternative text: context menu →
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Description... → Title & Description
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Picture... → Options: Alternative (Text
only)
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
15. Tables: 1
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Don’t use tabs or spaces to fake tables
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Menus: Table > Insert > Table...
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For header row: change style from
“Table Contents” to “Table Heading”
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
16. Tables: 2
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Make header row repeat
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Disable the option “Allow rows to break
across pages and columns”
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Avoid merged cells
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
17. Language
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Mark up the default language of a
document
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Mark up language changes in the
document
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
18. Colour and Contrast
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Don’t rely on colour
alone to convey
information (diagrams!)
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Sufficient contrast
between foreground and
background information
in text, charts and
images
●
Paciello Group Colour
Contrast Analyser
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
19. Export as PDF
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General tab: check
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“Tagged PDF”
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“Export Bookmarks”
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Initial View tab: check
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“Bookmarks and Page”
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These checkboxes
remain checked
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
20. LibreOffice Accessibility Issues (1)
●
Accessible title and description on
image disappear when caption is added
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Accessible title and description on
image disappear when anchor is change
(e.g. to “As character”)
●
Extension manager: tabbing out of list
of extensions does not work when focus
is on non-removable extension
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
21. LibreOffice Accessibility Issues (2)
●
No explicit connection between label
and field in extension GUI created
through UNO API?
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Default language for presentation /
spreadsheet not visible in status bar of
Impress / Calc
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No language identification for sections /
spans of text in Impress and Calc
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
22. LibreOffice Accessibility Issues (3)
●
Impress PDF export
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Text alternatives for images are not preserved
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“All of the text on this page lacks a language
specification” (each slide)
●
“Tab order may be inconsistent with the
structure order” (some slides)
●
“None of the comments or other types of
annotations on this page are contained in the
structure tree” (some slides)
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011
23. Questions? Comments?
●
Contact:
●
Christophe.Strobbe@esat.kuleuven.be
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See also
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“odt2daisy & odt2braille:
OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice Extensions
for Accessible Formats”
in the Accessibility devroom
●
Accessible Digital Office Document
project: http://adod.idrc.ocad.ca/
FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium, 5-6 February 2011