Creating and Exporting Word and PowerPoint Documents to Create Accessible PDFs with Acrobat Professional

Presented at 10:30am in Westminster IV on Monday, November 13, 2017.

Speaker(s)

• George Joeckel, Online Training Program Manager, Utah State University / WebAIM

Session Details

• Length of Session: 3-hr
• Format: Lab
• Expertise Level: Intermediate
• Type of session: Pre-conference

Summary

Participants will receive detailed information for maximizing accessibility in Word, PowerPoint, and Acrobat Professional. Participants will learn best practices for creating page structure and alternatives to non-text content. Participants will receive an overview of how to export for, setup, and use Acrobat Pro to create accessible PDF documents.

Abstract

Participants in this 3-hour lab will receive detailed information for maximizing accessibility in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat Professional by building on inherent strengths, and mitigating known weaknesses in these programs. Participants will learn best practices in Word and PowerPoint for: creating page structure and alternatives to non-text content, using native accessibility checkers, and exporting tagged PDF documents. Participants will observe an initial setup procedure for Acrobat Pro. Participants will learn best practices for addressing issues specific to PDFs that have been generated by following the preceding Word and PowerPoint best practices. Specifically, participants will explore targeted areas of the Tags Pane, the Touch Up Reading Order tool, the Table Editor, the Forms Editor, the Accessibility Checker, and the Action Wizard.

Keypoints

1. Word and PowerPoint have accessibility strengths that can be built on, and weaknesses that can be mitigated.
2. Correctly structuring and exporting native documents reduces the overhead for creating accessible PDFs.
3. Non-experts can use Acrobat Professional to create accessible PDFs from their Word and PowerPoint files.

Disability Areas

Vision

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Uncategorized, Web/Media/App Access

Speaker Bio(s)

George Joeckel

George is the Online Training Program Manager at WebAIM. He has a master’s degree in instructional psychology and technology, and over 20 years of teaching experience. Since 2008, he has developed online courses at Utah State University, and he joined the WebAIM team at the end of 2015. The Accessible Documents video-based course went online in July 2018. To date, more than 7,000 independent-study learners have participated in the training.