Microsoft Desktop Accessibility

Featuring:

Microsoft® Office XP

Microsoft Windows® XP Professional

Microsoft Windows® XP Home Edition

Published: February2002

Table of Contents

1

Introduction......

Executive Summary......

I am an Office XP User – How do I Create Accessible Documents?......

How To......

Workarounds......

I am a user of Assistive Technology – How do I Use Office XP and Windows XP?......

How To......

Workarounds......

I am an Information Technology Professional – What are my tools?......

Considerations......

Office Resource Kit Tools......

Windows XP Tools......

Conclusion......

Finding More Information......

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Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399USA

Microsoft Desktop Accessibility

White Paper

Published: February 2002

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Introduction

With today’s advanced technology, tasks which were once closed to users with disabilities can be accessible to everyone. Nevertheless, many organizations are still not clear on what accessible technologies are available to them and how these technologies should be implemented. Knowledge workers need to know how they can use Microsoft technologies to create accessible documents and web pages. Users with disabilities need to know what technologies exist to serve their needs and how to use these technologies. Finally, managers and administrators need to know how they can deploy these technologies to their users without a prohibitive expenditure of time and resources.

Microsoft is committed to driving innovation in the accessibility field. Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition and Microsoft Windows XP Professional (hereafter referred to collectively as Microsoft Windows XP) along with Microsoft Office XP bring new and powerful accessibility capabilities to users.

The importance of accessibility was underlined when theU.S. Government issued the Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards for Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in December 2000 (Section 508). Section 508 defines a series of accessibility standards for electronic and information technology. The Section 508 standards have been incorporated into Federal procurement practices and help Federal agencies determine whether or not a technology, product or system is accessible. Section 508 not only defines a series of guidelines for software makers to follow in creating software that is universally accessible, but it provides a clear statement about the importance of accessible software design: electronic and information technology that is not accessible may not be eligible for Federal procurement. That is a message that increasingly may be taken up by state and local governments, as well as by private companies. New regulations such as Section 508 raise awareness of the value of designing and deploying accessible technologies in the workplace, meeting the needs of an estimated 54 million people in the U.S. with disabilities, including 8.5 million who want to work but remain unemployed.

Understanding and documenting accessibility can be complex. The Federal government, in association with the software industry, created the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT), an informational tool for vendors to use the Section 508 technical criteria to describe the accessibility features in their products. The Microsoft Windows XP VPAT and the Microsoft Office XP VPAT describe the accessibility features of Windows XP and Office XP in reference to Section 508. These documents are available through the Microsoft accessibility Web site, which is listed at the end of this document.

Used in conjunction with the Office XP and Windows XP VPATs, this paper showcases the accessibility technologies offered by the Windows XP and Office XP experience and provides a tutorial in their use. It also provides pointers to the wealth of additional information available on these topics through the Web.This paper and the VPATs will help you formulate an accessibility strategy that is suitable to the needs of your organization and the requirements of Section 508.

Executive Summary

There are many good reasons to make use of the accessibility capabilities of Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Windows XP. First, accessibility means access to information. By using solid accessible design principles in your documents and web pages, you can make sure that you are providing information to the widest audience possible. Second, accessibility means that users with extended software needs can be productive and effective members of your organization. A third reason to implement accessible technologies is that it’s so easy. Microsoft has a full set of tools to help automate deployment and management of Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Windows XP, including configurations and features for accessibility technology users. Section 508 provides an excellent set of guidelines for accessibility. With Microsoft technologies you can implement Section 508 and achieve the benefits of accessibility at a reasonable cost.

If you’re creating documents which are only accessible to a segment of your audience, you’re not getting the maximum value out of your productivity tools. Microsoft Office XP has a full set of features which enable knowledge workers to create accessible documents. This means that documents created in Microsoft Office XP can reach the widest audience possible. Accessible design has an additional advantage. Documents designed according to good accessibility practices tend to be cleaner and more organized than documents designed without. This means that information will be easier to use and more clearly presented. Thus, accessible design goes hand-in-hand with good standards of presentation and readability. Accessibility is an excellent component of any organization’s document standards. One of the main areas where accessible document creation comes into play is on the web. The web is quickly becoming the medium of choice for people and businesses to exchange information. Microsoft knows this and has included powerful web-enabled features in its productivity software. These allow you to extend your good design principles to the web.

Creating accessible documents is only one aspect of accessibility. Software must also enable Assistive Technology (AT) users to effectively use the software to do their job. This is achieved by providing powerful accessibility features and making them available in a consistent fashion across an entire suite of tools. One of the key criteria of Section 508 is that software applications should not interfere with display, sound and accessibility settings defined in the operating system. Microsoft achieves this through the implementation of system-wide settings. Simply put, having system-wide settings means that when a user defines a display, sound, keyboard configuration or other option in the operating system, this setting will also be applied in their applications, such as Microsoft Office XP. This is central to the user experience in Windows XP and Office XP. For example, users who have trouble reading text on the screen may define a number of settings such as a large font size and high contrast color settings in Windows XP. Office XP will recognize these settings and preserve them within in Microsoft Office applications.

In addition, Microsoft also supports a wide range of assistive technologies developed by third parties. Through their proven commitment to open technologies and published APIs, Microsoft enables developers of accessible technologies to integrate their software and hardware with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system and with Microsoft Office XP. As a result, Microsoft WindowsXP and Office XP support a wide variety of third-party accessibility technologies. For more information, contact your AT vendor.

Microsoft knows that the best technologies in the world are useless if you can’t deploy them to your users. That’s why the final key goal in achieving accessibility is to allow information technology professionals to deploy and administer these technologies effectively. Microsoft Office XP has a number of powerful management and deployment tools that let you provide Office XP technologies to your users without creating an unreasonable workload for your Information Technology staff.

This document is intended as an informational guide to the accessibility technologies available in Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Windows XP. It can be used as a companion to the Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office XP VPATs available from Microsoft. This document explains in detail how many of the features described in the VPATs can be used and implemented. It also offers useful advice based on Microsoft’s experiences in the accessibility field. By using the VPAT and this document as guides, you are taking the first steps to creating an effective accessibility strategy for your organization.

I am an Office XP User – How do I Create Accessible Documents?

With the technologies that are available today, there is no reason that documents should not be usable by users with various accessibility needs. Simply creating documents which are clear and simply designed is a good first step in this direction. Not only are well designed documents easier for all users to read, they are easier for accessibility technologies to parse. For example, there are technologies for blind users that translate screen text into Braille or audio format. A document that is simply and clearly laid out will be easier for these technologies to translate, in addition to being easier for sighted readers to understand.

Microsoft Office XP enables you to create documents that anyone can access, no matter what their needs. When creating documents, there are some best practices that you should keep in mind which will make them more accessible. When conveying information in a document, avoid methods of presentation which some of your users may not be able to access, or offer some alternative way to access the information. Section 508 outlines a number of design principles that should be kept in mind for accessibility’s sake. Some of these considerations are listed below:

  • Color coding – When using color to convey information, make sure that people who are colorblind, or have difficulty seeing the screen, can still read your documents. Make sure there is a way for them to understand information conveyed in charts, graphs and diagrams effectively. If you use color-coding to convey information, provide a summary of the information somewhere in the document, or offer a non-color coded version as an alternative. For example, when you create a chart or graph in Microsoft Excel that uses color-coding to display information, include textual data labels and annotations as well. For information on how to do this using Microsoft Office XP, see the How To section below.
  • Choice of palette – Documents created using colors which do not contrast well are difficult to read. You should consider using a font color that contrasts with your background in all your documents. Microsoft Office XP allows a great deal of flexibility in making design choices, including choice of font and background colors. For information on how to change font and background colors in Microsoft Office XP, see the How To section below. Office XP also offers a number of themes which fit this requirement.
  • Audio cues, music and recorded dialog – If you use sound in your documents to convey any type of information, make sure that the same information is also available through other means such as a textual transcript or visual alerts. This ensures that users who have trouble hearing will be able to receive all the information you are trying to provide.
  • Images, charts, graphs and diagrams – When you are using images, charts or graphs to convey information, make sure that this information is also available through textual means in the document. Do this by including summarizing text somewhere in the document which explains the image, chart, graph, or diagram clearly. If you are using images as buttons or navigational links, you should also include alternate text in the image. For information on how to do this using Microsoft Office XP, see the How To section below.
  • Tables without clear headers – Some accessibility technologies have trouble displaying tables, or may need to take tables apart and read the information one piece at a time. When using tables, make sure that all the columns are clearly labeled.
  • Animated or blinking text – Animations and blinking text may be difficult or impossible for some readers to see. Avoid using blinking text or animations where possible. If you do use it, make sure there are other ways for users to access the information it is conveying.

The World Wide Web is the fastest growing medium for information in the world. Microsoft Office XP allows you to create web pages in a number of ways, including saving as a web page from Microsoft Word, and developing web-enabled forms in Microsoft Access. Making these pages accessible doesn’t have to mean toning down your design. In fact, a well designed accessible web page is usually more complete and better constructed than one that was built without accessibility in mind, without sacrificing any presentational quality. Web pages have unique capabilities; so creating accessible web pages requires some additional accessibility practices. In general, documents created using the design principles above will also be highly accessible when saved as web pages. However, when creating documents for the web, there are addition accessibility issues to keep in mind:

  • Multimedia – Microsoft Office XP allows you to use a variety of multimedia elements in web pages, including sound, animation and video. However, you should avoid too much reliance on multimedia to the exclusion of traditional modes of conveying information. Whenever possible, you should provide descriptive text to supplement any multimedia elements. This includes providing textual transcripts of video or audio presentations, and summaries of animated or interactive content. For example, if you are creating a Microsoft PowerPoint® presentation that has an audio component, you can include a transcript of the audio in the notes pane.
  • Images – When using images in your web page, make sure you provide alternate text explaining what the image is. Alternate text can be contained in the ALT or LONGDESC attribute of the image tag. Microsoft Word and PowerPoint provide a simple mechanism that allows you to do this while you are creating your document without requiring you to have any knowledge of HTML. For information on how to do this using Microsoft Office XP, see the How To section below.
  • Style Sheets – Many web documents use style sheets to organize formatting and design. When using style sheets, make sure that your document is still readable without the style sheet, as many assistive technologies strip away style information. It is a good idea to use as clear and simple a design as possible. Web pages created by using the Save as Web Page functionality of Microsoft Word 2002 conform to this requirement.
  • Image Maps – When you design web pages with navigational links, make these links clear and easy to understand. When using image maps, make sure that there are redundant text links also available on the page for use by vision-impaired users. In addition, use client-side image maps whenever possible, as they provide more information to assistive technology users.
  • Data Tables – Use row and column headers for all data tables to make them more readable. HTML also allows users who are familiar with HTML to add this information directly to table cells as metadata. This method is the preferred way of making data tables accessible.
  • Frames – When using frames, title every frame to make navigation and comprehension easier. It is a good idea to make every page readable and navigable even when it is removed from the frameset by an assistive technology.
  • Screen Flicker – Do not design web pages or animations that flicker faster than 55Hz or slower than 2Hz because these may cause seizures in some susceptible users.
  • Text-only Pages – Text-only is the easiest format for many users to read, and for many assistive technologies to parse. Provide text-only versions of the pages on your site and clearly identify them with a textual link.
  • Scripts and Applets – Some users may not be able to use scripts and applets embedded in web pages. Make sure that any information they provide is available by alternate means.
  • Forms – Make web forms easy to navigate, and make sure that users can navigate them without using the mouse. There are two preferred methods for navigating web forms using the keyboard. The first method isusing the TAB key to move from one form field to the other. This is done by giving each form field a TABINDEX property which tells the browser in what order the form elements are supposed to be navigated. The second method is by specifying a keyboard shortcut for each form element. A good web form should be able to support both methods. If you are familiar with HTML you can add the TABINDEX and shortcut key attributes directly in the HTML code. You can also add them to form elements in a Data Access Page created in Microsoft Access 2002 (see the tutorial later in this document). Microsoft FrontPage®also provides methods for making accessible web forms. For more information on creating accessible forms in Microsoft FrontPage 2002, see the link to the FrontPage accessibility web site later in this paper.
  • Skip Repetitive Navigation Links – Providing a link that lets users skip repetitive navigational elements will make it easier for AT users to access your site.
  • Time Limits – When there is a time limit to respond to questions or carry out an action on your web site, make sure there is some method for AT users to indicate that they need more time to make a response.

Following these practices is the best way to make sure that documents you create make use of the accessibility standards put forth in Section 508. A good way to implement these practices is to incorporate them into your organizations document standards and templates. Microsoft Office XP also allows you to create templates and to alter the templates which are provided with the software. More information on designing web pages and implementing accessibility into web pages can be found on the Microsoft web site. The World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative provides information on how to evaluate your current documentation practices and web sites from an accessibility point of view. A link to this site is provided at the end of this paper.