{"id":15369,"date":"2023-10-25T09:37:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T13:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/?page_id=15369"},"modified":"2025-01-15T15:05:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T18:35:44","slug":"accessibility-checklists-for-microsoft-word-documents-powerpoint-files-and-adobe-pdf-documents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/accessibility-checklists-for-microsoft-word-documents-powerpoint-files-and-adobe-pdf-documents\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessibility Checklists for Microsoft Word Documents, PowerPoint Files, and Adobe PDF Documents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The desire to increase the accessibility of documents and files increases as we become more aware of designing for universal learning. Common ways of presenting course content to students include Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint files, Adobe PDF documents, and web-based content, such as in a learning management system (LMS) like Brightspace.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Definition of Terms<\/h2>\n<p>First of all, let\u2019s look at a few definitions of terms related to accessibility.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Alternative Text<\/strong>: Text associated with non-textual content (e.g., an image) that conveys the same essential information. Also known as \u201cAlt text\u201d.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bookmark<\/strong>: A type of link with representative text that makes it easier to navigate through documents.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Descriptive Text<\/strong>: The text that describes a form field\u2019s contents to a screen reader user. Also known as a &#8220;label\u201d. It should be vivid, colourful, and detailed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Screen Reader<\/strong>: A software program used to allow reading of content and navigation of a screen using synthesized speech or Braille output. Used primarily by persons who are blind or have low vision.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tags<\/strong>: The structured, textual representation of the PDF content that is accessed by screen readers, to read the document out-loud.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Design Considerations<\/h2>\n<p>This resource outlines design considerations for increasing a file or document\u2019s accessibility. A list or checklist of items to consider in increasing the accessibility of content is presented below for Word, PowerPoint and PDF file types. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/accessibility-checklist-for-microsoft-word-documents\/\">MS Word checklist<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/accessibility-checklist-for-microsoft-powerpoint-files\/\">MS PowerPoint checklist<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/accessibility-checklist-for-adobe-acrobat-pdf-documents\/\">Adobe PDF checklist<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Further information on making web-based content accessible may be found at the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/WCAG22\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/WCAG22\/\" target=\"_blank\">Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><section class='notebox'><aside><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Note<\/h3>\n<p>On May 31, 2024, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/accessible.canada.ca\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/accessible.canada.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\">Accessible Standards Canada<\/a> published its own accessibility standard <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/accessible.canada.ca\/en-301-549-accessibility-requirements-ict-products-and-services\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/accessible.canada.ca\/en-301-549-accessibility-requirements-ict-products-and-services\" target=\"_blank\">for information, communication, and technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><\/aside><\/section><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Applying Accessible Design Features in Other Programs and Applications<\/h2>\n<p>To learn more about how to apply accessible design features in other programs and applications, please consult their built-in Help resources, or the resources listed in the References section at the bottom of this page.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">References<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"ref-list wp-block-list\">\n<li>Government of Canada. (2022, March 29). <em>PDF accessibility checklist<\/em>. BuyAndSell Canada. <a href=\"https:\/\/buyandsell.gc.ca\/cds\/public\/2022\/03\/29\/85438510de93ee3227dc0e77abebae52\/pdf_sample_en.pdf\">https:\/\/buyandsell.gc.ca\/cds\/public\/2022\/03\/29\/85438510de93ee3227dc0e77abebae52\/pdf_sample_en.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Government of Canada. (2023, October 5). CAN-ASC-6.1 &#8211; Information and communication technology products and services. Accessibility Standards Canada: Information and communication technologies. (<a href=\"https:\/\/accessible.canada.ca\/centre-of-expertise\/information-and-communication-technologies#s1\">https:\/\/accessible.canada.ca\/centre-of-expertise\/information-and-communication-technologies#s1<\/a>]<\/li>\n<li>Government of Canada. (2024, August 27). CAN\/ASC &#8211; EN 301 549:2024 &#8211; Our standard on Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services. Accessibility Standards Canada: Information and communication technologies. <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/accessible.canada.ca\/en-301-549-accessibility-requirements-ict-products-and-services\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/accessible.canada.ca\/en-301-549-accessibility-requirements-ict-products-and-services<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Student Life. (2023). <em>Creating accessible materials<\/em>. Memorial University of Newfoundland. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mun.ca\/student\/faculty-and-staff-resources\/accessible-education\/creating-accessible-materials\/\">https:\/\/www.mun.ca\/student\/faculty-and-staff-resources\/accessible-education\/creating-accessible-materials\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Microsoft Corporation. (2023). <em>Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities<\/em>. Microsoft Corporation. <a href=\"https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-us\/office\/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25\">https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-us\/office\/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Council of Ontario Universities. (2017). <em>Using word documents and\/or PDFs<\/em>. Ontario&#8217;s Universities Accessible Campus. <a href=\"https:\/\/accessiblecampus.ca\/tools-resources\/educators-tool-kit\/teaching-tips\/using-word-documents-andor-pdfs\/\">https:\/\/accessiblecampus.ca\/tools-resources\/educators-tool-kit\/teaching-tips\/using-word-documents-andor-pdfs\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>W3C. (2016, March 17). <em>PDF techniques for WCAG 2.0<\/em>. W3C. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/WCAG20-TECHS\/pdf.html\">https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/WCAG20-TECHS\/pdf.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li>W3C. (2023, October 5). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C. <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/WCAG22\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/WCAG22\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Web Accessibility in Mind. (2019, January 30). <em>Word and PowerPoint accessibility evaluation checklist<\/em>. Institute for Disability Research, Policy, and Practice. <a href=\"https:\/\/webaim.org\/resources\/evaloffice\/\">https:\/\/webaim.org\/resources\/evaloffice\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Web Accessibility in Mind. (2023, May 31). <em>PDF accessibility<\/em>. Institute for Disability Research, Policy, and Practice. <a href=\"https:\/\/webaim.org\/techniques\/acrobat\/\">https:\/\/webaim.org\/techniques\/acrobat\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What should I look out for to increase accessibility of my MS Word, MS PowerPoint or Adobe Acrobat files?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":255,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[353],"tags":[24,209,215,55,217,207,213,211,219],"collection":[367],"class_list":["post-15369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accessibility","tag-accessibility","tag-contrast","tag-delivery","tag-design","tag-figures","tag-layout","tag-printing","tag-tables","tag-tags","collection-semester-start-up"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"simon","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/author\/simon\/"},"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7y0Lp-3ZT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/255"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15369"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22311,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15369\/revisions\/22311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15369"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=15369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}