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INSTRUCTOR: Hi everyone, 
in this video I'm going to show you

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 how to make a Word
document accessible.

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In other words, how to make
the content easy to perceive

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and navigate by people with various
types and degrees of disability.

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I'm using Office 365 

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but it should be similar
in other versions of Word.

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We'll look at the following topics,

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images, colours, headings,
spacing, links and tables.

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Here's an example document.

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This is a shortened version
of a syllabus for my class.

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It doesn't look too bad.

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Most people who can perceive
visual design should have

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no problem reading
or finding information in it.

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We've already got a good start.

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The text size is 12 which is
a good size for reading.

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There is enough spacing between rows,
it's not cluttered and the content

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is organised in headings, subheadings,
bullet points and so on.

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However, people who use screen
readers or have less than perfect sight

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or colour vision
would have some problems.

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Let's first have a look at
the Microsoft Word accessibility checker.

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Go to file, check for issues,
check accessibility.

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The checker has spot some problems.

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The graphics don't have alternative text, 

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they're also not in line 

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and there are several instances of
insufficient contrast.

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The checker is a great tool
but it doesn't see all the problems.

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So, in general, it's best
to have an idea 

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of the main accessibility
issues and how to fix them.

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Let's start with images.

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All graphics need to have
 an alternative text or alt text in short.

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That is text describing an image which
can be read by a screen reader.

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These days when you first
insert a picture,

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 Word automatically generates
a description which you can see and edit.

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If you're editing an older document,

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you can add alt text by right-clicking
the image then edit alt text.

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It's good to keep
the description short and concise.

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Of course, if you're
describing a complex graphic

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like a chart, you will have
a longer description.

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In this case, I will write 
headshot of the instructor.

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The other graphic is this rectangle
under the title.

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For images that are just ornaments,
 tick the box mark as decorative.

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This way the screen reader
will know to ignore it.

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The accessibility checker also said
that my images are not in line.

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This can make it hard for a screen
reader to navigate a content.

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To fix it, right-click on the image,

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 go to wrap text
and select in line with text.

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For my picture, this means
that I cannot keep my layout

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so I will move it under the text
to make it look better.

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Colours need to have enough contrast
to be read easily by anyone.

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Default colours black
and white have great contrast

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but we often want to include
other colours in our documents.

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In my example, I have some green
headings and some red text 

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and both of these were flagged 
by the accessibility 

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checker as having low contrast.

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There are many websites where 

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you can check the contrast
of colour pairs.

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I like this one at Level
Access because I can input

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the RGB values which
is what Word shows me.

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So, if I select my text
and go to text colour,

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and click more colours, custom, 

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I can get the RGB values
and check them,

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in this case, on a white
background which is 255 255 255.

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There are two settings,
 one for less than 18 points

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and one for 18 points
or larger or 14 points in bold.

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My text is 18 so let's check
the second one.

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You can see that this combination is not
even at a double A level.

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Let's go back to Word
and make the colour a bit darker.

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According to the accessibility
checker, this is now OK,

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 but let me double-check
with the online tool.

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You can see that it is now
level double A compliant

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 but, in many contexts
such as universities,

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 we aim for triple A.

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So, let's go even darker.

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And, there you go.

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Now we have enough contrast
so I'll go with that.

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I'm not going to change
the other headings for now

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because we will change them
all in the next section.

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My document also has some red text.

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We can fix this the same way.

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We have an additional problem here.

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It's not a good idea to
use only colour to convey meaning

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 because some
people may be colour blind.

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So, to emphasise a word
or a sentence, 

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also make it bold or italics
or even better,

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make use of one of the options in
the styles box,

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like, emphasis or strong
and then add your own style.

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You can also install a tool
like the colour contrast analyser

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 to help you check
and adjust your colours.

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It also has a colour blindness
simulator which is useful

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when your design contains
combinations of multiple colours.

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Though I made my headings and titles
stand out through visual design,

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a screen reader doesn't
know what they are.

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Marking them properly, will
let screen reader users skim

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 the content and understand it's
organisation easily.

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To do that, we need to use
the styles feature.

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First, select the text,
then, in the home tab,

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go to the styles box and pick the style.

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In this case, I will choose title. 

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As you can see,
it changes what your text looks like,

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but, you can then style
it any way you want.

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Let's do the headings. 

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Instructor information is the first level
so it will be a heading one.

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Select the text then click heading one.

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Do the same for all first level headings.

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Now, to change what they look like,

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select one of them,

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change the style.

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In my case, I want them
to be Arial 19 green.

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Then in the styles box,
right-click heading one

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and select update heading
one to match selection.

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This changes all my heading one
text to the desired style.

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Now I can do the same for heading two.

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Select text, change to heading two,

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change the style,

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update to match selection.

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As you can see,
my document looks the same

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but now it is screen reader friendly

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thanks to the structural formatting.

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One more thing we can do
to increase accessibility

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 is to remove unnecessary spaces.

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So, instead of adding empty lines, 

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use the paragraph settings
to adjust the spacing.

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Select the text or place the cursor
on the line you wish to change,

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click on the little arrow
in the paragraph box

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and adjust the before
and after settings.

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For heading one, I will make it
24 points before and twelve after.

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Now apply
it to all the headings

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the same way we did before
by selecting the text

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and updating heading one
to match selection.

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Do the same for heading two,
 let's say 20 before and 14 after.

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Update

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and now remove all the empty lines.

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We can do the same for paragraphs. 

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In this case, I'm not going
to match the styles

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because it would change
the colour and everything

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 so it's best if you set this up
when you first create a document.

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The links need to include meaningful
text rather than the URL.

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A screen reader may read
the URL one letter at a time

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 which is not very helpful.

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Additionally, descriptive links help

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both screen reader users
and sighted users skim

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 the document to get an idea
of the content 

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or find specific information.

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To make a link descriptive,
right-click on it 

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and choose edit hyperlink.

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Change the text to
display to something meaningful.

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In this case, blackboard help
for students. 

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Now, everyone knows immediately 
where the link is sending them.

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Alternatively, type your
text in first,

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then select it, right click
and choose link.

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Now you can paste in the address.

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If you think this document
will be printed,

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you may want to put the URL in
brackets after the descriptive text

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so people can see the link
and type it in if needed.

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Tables can also cause some
trouble to screen reader users.

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The main role is to keep
them simple 

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and avoid split cells, merge cells,
and nested tables.

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Another thing you can do is to have a
designated header row.

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To do that, select the row, right click
and select table properties.

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In the row tab, check repeat
a header's row

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at the top of each page

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and uncheck allow a row
to break across pages.

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You can also go to the alt text tab

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and write a title and a description.

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Now you can see that
the header row appears 

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on the next page,
 which really helps all users,

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but also a screen reader will be
able to navigate the data better.

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Once you've ensured accessibility
on all these aspects,

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they will all be preserved

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when you turn your Word
document into a PDF.

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You can simply save as and choose PDF

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or, if you want to double check
from the file tab,

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 go to export, create PDF,

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options,

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and make sure document structure
tags for accessibility is checked.

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So, these are the main things you can do

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 to make your document accessible.

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Thanks for watching.