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Re: Word Accessibility with JAWS

for

From: Info
Date: Sep 17, 2008 11:00AM

Text boxes are inherently inaccessible to screen readers since they sort of
float over the document as objects.



JAWS does have a keyboard command to list objects in a Word document: Ctrl +
Shift + Letter O. You can navigate to an object such as a text box and
sometimes read its contents. This is not for the faint of heart.



If you save the PowerPoint as an outline, all text boxes will be removed as
will images. Just text that is in placeholders will be saved as an RTF file.



I tried saving the presentation I put a text box in as a single web page but
it has 4 frames and is equally confusing to navigate in a hurry/thinking of
student skills in using AT.



Aside from using tools like Adobe Acrobat to create a tagged PDF of the
presentation.but this would assume and accessible slide presentation; or,
something like the Office Publishing Wizard from the University of Illinois,
I can't think of an accessible way of repurposing a slide presentation to
something accessible.



In PowerPoint 2007 you can create a master slide with standard accessible
placeholders rather than text boxes and this is one way of having the look
and feel of a text box without the inaccessibility but this means either
creating a template for an instructor or having them create one using
placeholders instead of text boxes and educating them on the inaccessibility
of text boxes and other objects.



At one time I thought there was a keyboard command for rendering text box
content in a more accessible way using a JAWS keyboard command but I can't
think of it - but now you have me curious - will try to track it down and
see if it is in the current JAWS version.



Cheers, Karen









From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jason
Maseberg-Tomlinson
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:42 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Word Accessibility with JAWS



Does anyone have advice on the use of Text Boxes in Word XP or 2007 with the
most recent version of JAWS. In the past I have found that JAWS did not
read any text boxes and I am trying to find out if this is still the case.

What I am trying to do is find out if it would be beneficial to a student
using JAWS if we had a faculty member send a PowerPoint to Word with notes
below the slides. My understanding is that this would not work and that
JAWS would not recognize the text in the slides, only the note text.

Thanks for any help in advance. I find this to be a very helpful community.

Jason

--

_____

Jason Maseberg-Tomlinson
Adaptive Technology Specialist
Disability Support Services
202 Holton Hall
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506-1311

Ph# 785.532.6441
Fax 785.532.6457

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