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Tag: Document Compliance

Remove Flashing, Flickering, and Animated Text in Microsoft Word |Section 508 for Word

Welcome to another post in our series focusing on enhancing Word accessibility to ensure Section 508 compliance. Today, we learn the importance of removing flashing, flickering, and animated text to ensure Word accessibility.

Video Guide

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that federal agencies’ electronic and information technology is accessible to people with disabilities. This includes documents created in Microsoft Word. Compliant documents do not contain any flashing, flickering, or animated text.

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Flashing and Animated Text for Section 508 Compliance

Flashing and flickering elements in documents can be a significant barrier for people with photosensitive epilepsy or other light-sensitive conditions. Section 508 compliance aims to eliminate these unnecessary visual effects.

In Word documents, this includes:

  • Rapidly flashing text or images
  • Animated GIFs that flash or flicker
  • Any element that causes a distraction or discomfort due to light sensitivity
An embedded flashing GIF in a Word document

It’s important to note that such elements can be a health risk for some viewers. Therefore, we advise caution when viewing the video guide to this blog post, especially if you’re sensitive to light changes.

Always review your Word documents for any such content that could be harmful or inaccessible, and simply delete it.

MS word guides, videos, and instruction links

Ensuring your Word documents are Section 508 compliant is not just about adhering to regulations; it’s about making your content accessible to everyone. Removing flashing, flickering, and animated text from your Word documents is a straightforward yet effective way to achieve this. Remember, accessibility benefits all users, not just those with disabilities.

I can be your accessibility expert. For more detailed insights, tutorials, and in-depth discussions on accessibility and related topics, don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel: The Accessibility Guy on YouTube. Subscribe for regular updates!

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How to Make PDFs Accessible | Episode 6: Fullerton College

Welcome to episode six on community college PDF accessibility. Today, we focus on Fullerton Community College’s document “Points of Interest and Clarification Architecture.”

Video Guide

In case you missed them, here are Episode 1, Episode 2,  Episode 3, Episode 4 and Episode 5 in our PDF Accessibility Community College Series.

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Start with a quick review of the tags panel. The PDF had several blank tags and an unclear tag structure. Poor tagging provides inaccurate information to screen readers which disrupts accessibility.

In this case, the issues found suggested the document was converted from a Microsoft Word document, without proper accessibility checks.

Key Issues from This Episode

Run the auto tag feature to improve the PDFs accessibility:
  • The auto-tagger did a great job of organizing the content into proper tags like paragraphs (p tags) and headings (h1, h2, h3 tags). Lists were also formatted correctly.
  • Auto-tagger isn’t a perfect process, so we manually adjusted a few tags after running it. For example, h2 tags were changed to paragraph tags and the inconsistent headings for the Fall and Spring sections were changed to h3 for uniformity.
  • Finally, for better identification and searchability, update the PDF’s metadata, like the title and author.
A well organized PDF tags panel after running the auto-tagger.
After completing these initial fixes, the accessibility checker identified more PDF accessibility challenges:
  • Identify and manually correct misused tags. We found a figure tag that was meant to be a paragraph tag and corrected it.
  • Page numbers were not tagged so we manually selected each page number and tagged them as paragraphs.
Manually tagging page numbers in a PDF.
Multiple runs of the PAC checker also revealed several errors:
  • The structure tree showed several inappropriate uses of span tags which is a common error plaguing our PDF College Series!
  • Identify and correct role mapping problems by removing non-standard types, which show errors in the PAC checker. For example, our PDF contained ‘style spans’ which were not standard so we manually searched the tags panel and changed each to a regular span tag to eliminate the errors.
Changing Style Span tags to Span tags to eliminate errors

Troubleshooting these issues is a trial-and-error process. Remember to keep saving your PDF. Repeating tasks requiring absolute accuracy takes serious mental effort and is not fool proof.

PRO-TIP: To change multiple tags at once, hold down the control key and select your tags for editing. Next, open up the document properties, and change the ‘type’. Be careful! A single mis-click can deselect all your chosen tags, which then requires the process to be repeated.

Changing multiple PDF tag types at once.

This PDF had several accessibility issues. We used both automated and manual interventions including ensuring proper tagging, updating metadata, embedding fonts, and correcting ‘span’ styles in order to make it accessible

Remember, I can be your accessibility expert. For more detailed insights, tutorials, and in-depth discussions on accessibility and related topics, don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel: The Accessibility Guy on YouTube. Subscribe for regular updates!

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How to Resize a PDF

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How to Update Tooltips in a PDF

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Accessible Fonts for Section 508 Compliance

Today’s topic is how to set accessible fonts in Microsoft Word documents, to ensure section 508 compliance. Using the right font is a big step in making your Word documents accessible to all.

Video Guide

What Are Accessible Fonts?

Accessible fonts don’t slow user reading speed. This is especially important for those with low vision or reading disability, or people who are blind. The right font improves the legibility and readability of the document.

The sans-serif font family is fully accessible. Examples include Arial, Calibri, Century Gothic, Helvetica, Tahoma, and Verdana. Using one of these fonts helps your documents meet section 508 standards.

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How to Change Fonts for Accessibility in Word

To change fonts, follow these steps:

  1. Open your Word document.
  2. Press Ctrl + A. This selects all text.
  3. Go to the Home ribbon.
  4. Look for the Fonts area.
  5. Choose an accessible font, like Calibri.
  6. Now your document has accessible fonts.
How to set an accessible font in a Word document

PRO-TIP: The Ctrl + A feature is powerful. It lets you change fonts for the whole document quickly.

Checklist and Further Resources

Enter your email below to receive our free comprehensive MS Word checklist. It will be your guide to ensure all your Word documents meet section 508 standards.

Download MS Word 508 Checklist:

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I can be your accessibility expert. For more detailed insights, tutorials, and in-depth discussions on accessibility and related topics, don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel: The Accessibility Guy on YouTube. Subscribe for regular updates!

More posts like this:

Microsoft Word for Beginners

Video Overview Transcript of video Today we’re going to be covering the basics of Microsoft Word. If this is your first time to the accessibility guide channel, you should know…

by Shawn Jordison