Text Boxes Word 2010 Transcript
In this tutorial we will learn how to make text boxes accessible. I have here a word document that has 3 textboxes down the center of the page. The text boxes look visually appealing. However, text boxes used under the insert tab are not accessible and should be avoided completely. A textbox is used to direct the attention of the viewer toward the box because it contains more important information. Modern screen reading software does not process the text box as more important than any other text in the document. This is incorrect.
Now let’s open the document Text Boxes Tutorial 2010 from the materials section of the Accessibility Education Webpage. We just learned that text boxes are not accessible. However there is an easy solution to fix this inaccessibility. Under the introduction section we can determine that this is a text box by clicking anywhere within it. This is an incorrect text box because handles appear at the corners and sides of the box. To make this accessible, let’s highlight all the text within the box, right click, and then choose cut. The text will disappear and we can now click the remaining border of the box and click the delete key. Next, right click in the blank space where the text box used to be and click the first paste option. Now highlight the text that was just pasted and under the home ribbon, click the borders and shading drop down arrow. Then click borders and shading at the bottom of the list. In the borders and shading window, click the Box option. You can change the style of the line, the color, and width in this section. For now let’s choose an accessible blue color by clicking the color drop down menu and choosing blue. Let’s also change the width of the line to 3 points. Then, in the Apply To section make sure that Paragraph is selected. Then click Ok. This bordered box now looks visually identical to the text box and is also accessible to all students. This is correct.