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Accessible Word Docs - Need Help

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From: Carolyn Dudas
Date: Jun 9, 2016 12:08PM

I'm working with staff to help them make their Word documents accessible.
Most of the Word documents are forms which are meant to be printed and
completed by hand. By forms, I mean that there are fields which are
followed by what appears to be a solid line, but in actuality is just the
underscore character repeated multiple times. For instance, there are
fields called "First Name" and "Last Name" which are followed by a series of
underscore characters. Example: First Name__________________ Last
Name________________.

Also, there is an essay question on the form. Again, the author originally
typed the underscore character multiple times (for a total of 9 lines) so
that someone can write their response. Example:
"Why would you be a good candidate for this
program?"To make this document accessible for a person reading it via a screen
reader, I've advised staff to use a leader tab formatted with an underscore
rather than typing the underscore multiple times. Is the leader tab the
recommended method for creating underlines for this type of form?
Is this OK in terms of accessibility --- can a screen reader correctly read
the document?

Recommendations would greatly be appreciated.

I'd especially like if someone who is proficient in using a screen reader or
uses one daily could actually "read" my sample document to see if it's
accessible. If you are willing to do this, please let me know offline and
I'll send it to you as an attachment. Thanks.

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Carolyn Dudas