Accessibility Features
...
- Very good contrast (Foreground=black, Background=white, Ratio=21:1)
- Acceptable contrast (Foreground=#767676, Background=white, Ratio=4.54:1)
- Unacceptable contrast (Foreground=#AAAAAA, Background=white, Ratio=2.32:1)
Is the last line of text above very easy to read?
...
The table below is another good example of using color and text to convey information. Color coding is used, for the benefit of sighted users, and text is used, for broader accessibility (Green = "On Time", Yellow="At Risk", Red="Late").
| Project A | On Time |
|---|---|
| Project B | At Risk |
| Project C | Late |
Borders
Borders — on the whole page, on paragraphs, on tables, on table cells, on text boxes, on columns, etc. — can be an effective way to group information or draw attention to it visually, but screen readers don’t acknowledge borders, so don’t rely on borders alone to convey information.
...
This is an example of a simple table, as it has only one row of headers across the top.
| Name | Age | Birthday |
|---|---|---|
| Iva | 6 | July |
| David | 4 | March |
This is an example of a complex table because it has multiple headers that go with one given data cell. This CANNOT be made accessible in Word, but you can touch it up in HTML, EPUB or PDF to make it more accessible.
| Name | Age | Birthday | |
By Birth | Iva | 6 | July |
| David | 4 | March | |
| Diane | 7 | December | |
By Marriage | Steve | 9 | April |
| Igor | 11 | June |
If you get a document that has complex tables there is a way to "flatten" the table into a simple one. How would you do it for the above table?
One option would be to split the above table into two tables, which avoids the two main problems of 1) having a column of row headers on the side, and 2) having merged cells.
| Name | Age | Birthday |
|---|---|---|
| Iva | 6 | July |
| David | 4 | March |
| Diane | 7 | December |
| Name | Age | Birthday |
|---|---|---|
| Steve | 9 | April |
| Igor | 11 | June |
This solution won't work for all tables, but it's worth considering whenever possible. It will save you a lot of hassle when it comes to exporting to PDF format in particular. You can add the extra accessibility features to PDF files, but it's not a fast or easy process, and you have to do it every time you export the document, even if you didn't make any changes to the tables.
...
Saving a document to OneDrive can be a convenient way of storing documents in the cloud, where they can be accessed at any time from any device. OneDrive is similar to services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.net, and iCloud. You can share files in OneDrive with other people. You can set permissions as read-only, or shared editing. If the person accesses the file online, the file will likely open in the web browser, and some of the accessibility features may be unavailable in the online version of MS Office.
Created 05/03/18 by Edward Pritchard (edward.pritchard@domail.maricopa.edu) - Information sourced from Deque Systems, Inc and Deque University