Page Comparison

Option

• Keep as excel and follow below

• Move to word (?)

• Move to wcms tables (?)

Resources

• Creating accessible Excel files (Microsoft site)

• Creating accessible PDF's (WebAIM site)

• Create accessible PDFs - Office Support (Microsoft site) 

Instructions

In Excel

Add alternative text to images and objects

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1. Right-click the image or object, and click Format.

   Note:

2. Click Alt Text.

3. Type a description of the image or object into the Title and Description text boxes.

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4. Click Close.

Specify column header information in Excel tables 

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1. Click anywhere in the table.

2. On the Table Tools Design tab, in the Table Style Options group, select the Header Row check box.

3. Add your header information.

4. To specify a header row in a new block of cells you are marking as table, do the following:

   1. Highlight the cells you want to include in the table.

   2. On the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click Table.

   3. Select the My table has headers check box.

   4. Click OK.

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1. Place the cursor in the cell where you want to add the hyperlink.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Links group, click Hyperlink to open the Insert hyperlink dialog box.

3. In the Text to display box, type the name or phrase that will briefly describe the link destination.

4. In the Address box, type the link URL.

5. Click OK.

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1. This page gives guidelines on colour contrast:.Also see:

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Check for accessibility in Excel

1. Select File/Info.

2. Click Check for issues/Check Accessibility.

3. In right pane you can see all the issues and at the bottom right you will see how to fix the issues.

Set the File Properties

1. File/Info

2. Properties/Advanced Properties

3. Select each tab and add details about the whole file (if you like, you can change this before creating each PDF from each tab)

Create the PDF from excel with the appropriate options

1. One PDF file per tab.

2. File/Save as

3. Choose PDF from list

4. Click Options and choose:

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Check Accessibility of PDF

PAC software

1. Check for accessibility using PDF-Accessibility-Checker (PAC). 

2. PAC (http://www.access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-lab/pdf-accessibility-checker-pac.html)

   1. Free download

   2. Recommended by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

   3. 14/23 WCAG 2.0 checks

   4. Gives text of what a blind person would hear

   5. Easy to install and use

   6. Windows and Mac versions available

3. Download and install PAC from its website (you do not need to be an administrator to do this)

4. To run PAC, double click on pac.exe from where it is installed

5. In PAC:

   1. Click Browse and browse to the PDF file you would like to check; select the file and click Open

6. Click Start Check.

7. Click Report.

8. Beside any issues found, click the text of the issue for more information.

   1. You can ignore any issues related to Correct Syntax of Tags / Rolls

   2. Some issues may require some investigating as PAC doesn’t provide as much detail as Word on issues

   3. Issues related to Consistent Heading Structure or Logical Reading Order are often related to an issue such as a Heading 1 followed by a Heading 3 (instead of Heading 1 followed by Heading 2 followed by Heading 3)

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1. Open Adobe Acrobat Pro (these notes are based on Adobe Acrobat XI (version 11).

2. Open the newly created PDF file.

3. View/Tools/Accessibility, click Full Check on the right.

4. Under Checking Options, check all the checkboxes and click Start Checking.

5. View the report in the left pane. It will include links to the issues as well as links to instructions on how to fix the problems.

   1. For example, for any bolded items in the list on the left under Accessibility Checker:

      1. Click the + sign beside (e.g.) Document (## issue) and read the information displayed for each issue to learn how to fix it.

   2. If there are issues, it is often easiest to fix them in Excel and then re-create the PDF file.

      1. OR, see Edit an existing tag to fix it in Adobe Acrobat

6. Adobe should do the following for you but you can manually check as well:

   1. Paragraphs

      1. Check that any text outside of a table/chart is tagged as paragraph text or a heading and not a table cell.

   2. Tables:

      1. Double-check that the alt text/table summary and header rows are carried over.

      2. Set any header column(s).

      3. For table headers that apply to multiple rows or columns set the ‘span’.  For example, see the table exercise from the SEW course.

      4. Check that the tab/reading order is correct.

Edit an existing tag

Move a tag

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1. In the Order tab, right-click on the document and select Show reading order panel.

2. Drag through the content you want to tag.

3. Right-click and select how you want to tag the text (e.g. tag as text).

4. A numbered item for this content will appear in the Order tab. Drag it to the correct location in the reading order.

5. A tagged item will appear in the Tab order(sometimes nested within other tags). Use the steps above to move it to the correct place in the structure.

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