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Re: Word Viewer plug-in when a MS Word is hyperlinked in a webpage

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From: Mills, Teresa
Date: Aug 30, 2007 6:40PM

Linking to the viewers may be a good usuability practice, but does little to aid in accessibility. MS Word Reader is only partially accessible meaning that when using screen reader and this tool together, you can read very simple pages but not tables or a page with complex formatting. The MS Excel and Power Point readers are not 508 compliant and not accessible. Microsoft's response is they can't understand why a person just would not convert the page to HTML. Simple, in a good many cases the HTML page will not be accessible or meet the 508 standards or accessible-- and this method usually produces a web page with bloated code.

In my opinion, any page where you choose to link to powerpoint documents, excel documents, and possibly even Word documents (depending on complexity and design) without providing an accessible version along with the linked document, the web page does not meet 508 requirements. Specifically Standard M states "When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in or other application be present on the client system to interpret page content, the page must provide a link to a plug-in or applet that complies with §1194.21(a) through (l)." The MS PowerPoint and Excel viewers do not comply with §1194.21(a) through (l). A person who uses assistive technology, such as JAWS, aand who does not have a full version of PowerPoint or Excel on their computer, will not be able to read the linked documents as the PowerPoint and Excel documents as the viewers are not accessible. This means that it is a good usability/accessibility practice to provide an accessible alternative when posting links to these types of documents on your web site.

T. Mills