Creating Inclusive Information

Margaret McKay, Advisor: InclusionJisc RSC Scotland

http://tiny.cc/Accessible-Info

10/04/2023

Jisc Digital Media -www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/

Jisc Legal – http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/

Jisc Techdis - http://www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/

What barriers might people experience accessing information?

• Visual issues.• Motor/manual dexterity issues.• Learning differences such as

dyslexia.• Hearing issues.• Cognitive issues.• Language issues.• Literacy issues

Dry_Icon Images

Think about it from another perspective

A typical group of 1st year FE students were asked about difficulties that they experienced with

written information on a day to day basis.

What barriers do you think they highlighted?

• Blurred/fuzzy print.

• Headaches/discomfort if text too close together.

• Strong/bold print leaves a shadow.

• Lose place on line.

• Small print.

• Information not accessible with my assistive technology.

• Not all info can be seen on screen if magnified.

• Vocabulary difficult/unfamiliar.

• Long document difficult to follow.

• Forget the information if sentences long.

• I can’t read the information on the screen.

• The information on the screen is too small to see.

• I can’t adjust the font and colour backgrounds to suit my personal

preferences.

• The words keep jumping around the screen

• I find it difficult to navigate.

• I can’t use a mouse and instead use a keyboard to navigate.

• I keep miss-hitting the keyboard keys.

• I can’t hear the audio

Model of Accessibility MaturityWhere are you?

Accessible Font Styles

Serif Font Styles are less accessibleTimes New Roman (abc DEF)

Sans Serif Fonts Styles are more accessibleTrebuchet (abc DEF) Comic Sans (abc DEF) Arial (abc DEF) Verdana (abc DEF) Helvetica (abc DEF)Geneva (abc DEF)

Serif or Sans Serif Fonts

Good Practice with Font

• Text should be no smaller than 12 point.

• Use 1.5 line spacing - see the difference line spacing can make.

• Underlining of large volumes of text should be avoided as the readability is significantly decreased.

• DON’T WRITE WHOLE SENTENCES IN CAPITALS. (This can be undone by pressing shift and F3)

• Don’t use italics; consider using bold instead.

• Ensure all text is left aligned, not justified - see examples of unjustified and justified margins

Using Bullets and Numbering

• Using bulleting or numbered lists helps break up large blocks of text and makes lists of items easier to read. This is most useful for print impaired readers (e.g. people with dyslexia).

• Putting a punctuation mark at the end of each item list helps blind people who use screen readers to identify items on the list instead of hearing a long list of text.

TablesLet's pretend that you are a scree reader for just a moment. You're going to a web site to find out where the biology 205 class is going to be held. You go to a web page that has this information, and this is what you hear:

Do you know were biology 205 is supposed to be?

Table with 10 columns and 7 rows. Department Code, Class Number, Section, Max Enrollment, Current Enrollment, Room Number, Days, Start Time, End Time, Instructor, BIO, 100, 1, 15, 13, 5, Mon,Wed,Fri, 10:00, 11:00, Magde, 100, 2, 15, 7, 5, Tue,Thu, 11:00, 12:30, Indge, 205, 1, 15, 9, 6, Tue,Thu, 09:00, 10:30, Magde, 315, 1, 12, 3, 6, Mon,Wed,Fri, 13:00, 14:00, Indge, BUS, 150, 1, 15, 15, 13, Mon,Wed,Fri, 09:00, 10:00, Roberts, 210, 1, 10, 9, 13, Mon,Wed,Fri, 08:00, 09:00, Rasid.

Ref: webaim – accessible tables. http://webaim.org/techniques/tables/

Colour

Colour can make a difference

Page layout tab > colour > change colour to suit visual preferences

Changing background colours in a word document

www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/tbx/

Don’t use colour alone to convey information

ImagesAdding alt text to images provides information

for assistive technology users

• Right click your image and select format.

• Choose the format picture/alt text.

• Add an alt text that describes the image.

Adding alt text to images provides information for assistive technology users

Alt Text Descriptions

“It’s important to have description of images to help a visually impaired

person imagine what that image could be“

“Alt text gives me the idea of what the image, is not

just a massive gap when the screen reader is reading

back.“Jennifer - screen reader user2nd year university student

Using ImagesWhen using images It is worth checking the colour in greyscaleto determine how accessible itWould be if photocopied or if viewedby a student who was using screen

reading software.

Structuring DocumentsMicrosoft ® Word has an inbuilt structuring system for

heading styles which should be used when creating any document

Accessibility Benefits of UsingHeading Styles

Follow this link for an example of a well structured documentNote how easy it is to navigate the structured document using heading styles.

Heading Styles“Without heading styles in electronic documents, it is difficult for me to read & often I am the one spending time making my

course work accessible “

“As a screen reader user it is

important for me to have heading

structure in a Word document.“

“very time consuming scrolling down

continuously not knowing and

listening to information you don’t want to know about. “ Jennifer - screen reader user

2nd year university student

Well Structured Documents: Why?

Follow this link to hear a screen reader user talk about the importance of well structured documents

Accessibility Checker in Office 2010

http://vimeo.com/54452119

Well designed heading styles can be used to create a table of contents

Click on the image to see an animation on how to insert a Table of Contents (TechDis)

Hyperlinks

Where would you add the hyperlink in this description?

Click here for more information about Glasgow Kelvin College.

Hyperlinks should make sense out of context

Especially important for screen reader users who can opt to listen to hyperlinks as a summary of information. The links need to make sense out of context.

• Click here for Topic List. • Click here for Topic List.• Click here for Topic List.

Creating Accessible PDFs

• Adobe Acrobat Pro has a series of action wizards one of which takes you through the process of creating accessible PDFs - http://tiny.cc/accessPDFwizard.

• Using the Accessibility Check in Adobe Acrobat highlights any major accessibility issues with your document - http://tiny.cc/PDFAccessCheck.

Saving a Word document to PDF

Document Navigation when converted to PDF

• If a document has been structured correctly, users can view a hierarchical list of bookmarks allowing them to quickly locate the relevant information within a document.

• To open the bookmarks within a PDF navigate to View > Navigation Panels > Bookmarks

or click on the Bookmarks icon on the left of the screen.

• If available, the bookmarks will open on the left of the screen.

The Accessibility Benefits of PDFsPortability • Can be downloaded for use at the learner’s convenience.• Can be transferred to portable devices.

Consistency Looks the same on screen and printed.

AccessibilityDocuments can be read without the need to buy Microsoft Word or other proprietary software (if the reader doesn't’t have this application).

PersonalisationWith Adobe Reader there are many accessibility options to personalise how PDFs are accessed.

Adobe Reader-free software that will read back your PDF File

From a user's viewpoint the following functionalities in Adobe Reader offers the following benefits:

• The ability to navigate via bookmarks.• The ability to magnify text.• The ability to reflow text• The ability to change the text and background colours.• The ability to automatically scroll through the

document and therefore read it without mouse interaction.

Accessibility Features of Adobe Reader

http://tiny.cc/AdobeReaderAccess

Ref Alistair McNaught

Images courtesy of Alistair McNaught Jisc Techdis

Magnify Reflow Recolour

Format shift Navigate Interoperate

Images courtesy of Alistair McNaught Jisc Techdis

The beneficiaries

MagnifyEnough to support a wide range of users………………………

ReflowSo that magnified text still fits the page. ………………………..

RecolourSo people who need different contrasts can read easily………Format shift So people can read with ears as well as eyes ………………….NavigateIn using the semantic structure of the text ……………………...InteroperateWith different assistive technologies ……………………………. (text to speech, screen-reader, voice recognition, keyboard/switch).

V.I. Dyslexia Motor control

Images courtesy of Alistair McNaught Jisc Techdis

Techdis Guide to Creating Accessible Documents in MS Word

2010

http://tiny.cc/AccessibleDocumentsGuide

Techdis Toolbox

http://www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/tbx

Creating Inclusive Information

Margaret McKay, Advisor: InclusionJisc RSC Scotland

http://tiny.cc/Accessible-Info

10/04/2023