"Fast Five" Essentials to Preparing Materials

Most employees and students can take advantage of these tools in order to create materials for all constituents—employees, alumni, and students—to work and learn with confidence.

Table of Contents

Select the link to be taken directly to that section of the article.

In-program Styles

Using appropriate headings in the appropriate order in your current program is necessary. They add structure and create consistency in documents and allow screen readers to easily—audibly—scan the information. Additionally, authors can easily create such things as a Table of Contents or view an Outline.

Apple

• Apple's article: Create accessible documents, spreadsheets, or presentations with Pages, Numbers, or Keynote.
• Toronto Metropolitan University Pressbooks: Technique 5: Use Headings.
• London College of Communication Teaching Hub: Create accessible documents using Apple Pages and Keynote.
• Intro to paragraph styles in Pages | Mac help.

Google

• Docs
  • Our KB article: Google Docs: Changing The Look of Headings and Paragraphs
  • Google's Support page: Add a title, heading, or table of contents to a document

• Sheets
• Sites
• Slides

HTML

In HTML, titles should exist within the <title> tag. There should only be one, and it should also be somehow related—and maybe even exactly the same—as the

. Use headings to establish structure.

LaTeX

In LaTeX, title is again metadata. Insert the title in the preamble metadata: \title{_}.

Styles that are important to structure in a LaTeX file are:

• Insert sections in document body: \section{_}, \subsection{_}, etc.
• Numbered lists in use: \begin{enumerate} \item ... \end{enumerate}
• Bulleted list use: \begin{itemize} \item ... \end{itemize}

See also:

• Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility | University of Edinburgh student intern blog
• LaTeX to HTML via PANDOC | Dan W. Joyce

Markdown

In Markdown, your title exists after a singular hashtag, # Title. Hashtags give markdown structure. The relationship between Markdown and HTML shows us that

and <title> are often similar or the same.

• Improving the accessibility of your markdown | Smashing Magazine
• 7.14 Improve accessibility of HTML pages | R Markdown Cookbook

Microsoft

• Excel
• PowerPoint
• Word
  • Our KB article: Using Word's Style Gallery to Create Structure in Your Document.
  • Microsoft's Support page: Make your Word documents accessible to people with disabilities.
  • Our KB article: Using Word's Properties to flow into a more accessible PDF.

Moodle

Atto Editor

• Swarthmore ITS Blog post: Reach all users with Atto text editor in Moodle.
• Moodle's Atto Editor documentation.

TinyMCE Editor

• TinyMCE Editor Documentation

Screen Reader Demo With Headings [YouTube]

Convey Meaning with Words

Links

When providing a link somewhere within your text, be sure to provide context. Screen readers provide users the opportunity to scroll through links, so links such as "click here" and "more" do not make sense out of context.

• Deque University: Use link text that makes sense when read out of context
• WebAIM: Links and Hypertext: Link Text and Appearance

Color

Color is not read aloud by screen readers, so consider calling attention to important text with words.

• Important: Paper due on April 15th. All late papers will be deducted one grade per day late.
• Note: All applicants must sign on line 11 and line 15 in order to have their pay direct deposited.
• Urgent: Pay attention to all directions before handing in this form.

When using color, ensure high contrast. Use WebAIM's Contrast Checker or Lea Verou's Contrast Ratio Checker.

Alt-Text, Captions, Image Descriptions, etc.

Providing descriptive text is necessary for all users to understand the meaning of an image.

• W3C WAI Images Tutorial
• WebAIM: Accessible Images
• Alt Text as Poetry
• Benetech's Poet Training Tool

In-program Accessibility Checkers

Adobe Accessibility Checker

• Adobe Help: Create and verify PDF accessibility

Google

Install and run Grackle for Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

LibreOffice

Go to Tools → Accessibility Check

Microsoft Office

• Microsoft Office: How to use Accessibility Review

Go to Review → Check Accessibility

Moodle

Atto Editor

1. Expand the editor's menu (down arrow).
2. Click on the "Accessibility checker" icon (stick figure in a circle).

TinyMCE Editor

Go to Tools → Accessibility Checker in the editor.

Setting a Language

• MacOS: Change system language
• Windows: Manage language settings

Apple Pages

1. Go to File > Advanced > Language & Region.
2. Choose the appropriate **Language** and **Region**.

Adobe Acrobat

1. Navigate to Fix accessibility issues.
2. Set the **Document Language** in the file properties.

Microsoft Office

• Add an editing or authoring language.

Google Docs

• Translate documents or write in a different language.

HTML

• Declaring language in HTML.

Additional Resources

• Accessible Syllabus Template
• WebAIM: Microsoft’s built-in alt text generator
• General Course Material Guidelines for Faculty
• Accessibility File Scan tool for course materials.
• Creating Accessible Course Content from TeachAccess.
• WebAIM Million Report