1 of 25

ACCESSIBILITY-

A How To Guide for Documents and Presentations

KELLY MACK- content inspired from AHS 494 at UIUC

2 of 25

3 of 25

1. Use styles

  • Each document needs exactly one title
  • Nest headings like you would in HTML, H2 only comes after H1 and so on

​

4 of 25

2. Don’t have extra carriage returns

  • Right click on the text and go to “Paragraph”
    • You can create space before or after the paragraph
    • You can right click on the styles and do the same to apply to all paragraphs

​

5 of 25

3. Make links accessible

  • Link text should be meaningful and indicate what action will be triggered

​

​

A11y Project (web page)- quick accessibility tips

​

6 of 25

4. User proper fonts

  • In word documents: at least size 12 font
  • This is size 12 font in a presentation- please don’t do this to your audience
  • This is size 28 font, for reference
  • Please also don’t be that person who uses this font

7 of 25

5. Use proper color contrast

Light on dark

Dark on light

Light on light

Dark on dark

  • Light text on a light back ground, dark text on a dark background, or small text on a busy background is hard to read
  • Contrast Checker (web link)

8 of 25

6. Make your images accessible

(1 of 2)

  • Add alt text
  • What makes good alt text?
    • Concise
    • Do not say “image of”
    • Describe what is in the image

9 of 25

6. Make your images accessible

(2 of 2)

  • Bad alt text:
    • This picture was taken at the Chihuly Glass Gardens
  • Better alt text:
    • Purple flowers with a fuzzy center surrounded by green leaves

10 of 25

7. Make your tables accessible

  • Make sure the header row repeats if the table spans across multiple pages
  • Add alternate text to the table
  • Set these by right clicking and selecting “Table Properties”

11 of 25

8. Fill in the document summary

  • Identify the Document Properties: Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, and Language

12 of 25

9. Use the accessibility checker

13 of 25

14 of 25

1. Use unique slide titles (1 of 2)

  • Slides titles should be unique to allow for easy navigation

​

15 of 25

1. Use unique slide titles (2 of 2)

  • Use the (x of y) method if you have multiple slides on the same topic

​

16 of 25

2. Avoid cluttered slides

  • Please, for the love of all that is good on this fine planet we call home, do not do this to your poor audience members
  • They don’t deserve this! What did they do to you? They probably flew hundreds of miles and of all talks and things to do in this new place came to YOUR talk.
  • And what do you do? You greet them with this GIANT wall of text! How rude. This is just unpleasant! It’s ugly to look at. It’s hard to read. It’s annoying as heck for me to type out this thing just to make a point!
  • So please, don’t do this to your audience members. Be a responsible presenter. Practice your talks so you don’t have to read off the slide (or use speaker notes! also okay!). Break up your content so looking at your slides isn’t like getting smacked in the face with a wall of text.
  • But there are exceptions! (e.g., if you have a thick accent)

​

17 of 25

3. Have good slides

  • Use large, sans-serif fonts
  • Use proper contrast
  • Use clear, simple language

18 of 25

A quick look at some statistics

5.22

12.34

Release rating

19 of 25

4. Don’t use color to convey meaning

5.22

12.34

  • Using color to convey meaning can be hard on those who are color blind

Release rating

20 of 25

5. If you have video content

  • Make sure it is captioned at best, transcribed at the least
  • Make sure it has audio descriptions if the non-verbal content is important

21 of 25

6. Yes, pictures still need alt text

  • Particularly the informational ones

22 of 25

7. Distracting effects

  • 9/10, you don’t need sound effects
  • You rarely ever NEED that movement-based slide transition

23 of 25

8. Check slide order

  • Check that the order in which content on a slide is read makes sense

24 of 25

These are just guidelines

  • People with disabilities know better

25 of 25

Resources