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Re: Accessible Word Docs - Need Help

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From: Tyllick,Cliff S (DADS)
Date: Jun 9, 2016 2:58PM

Joe, your approach is similar to "Creating Accessible Microsoft Word Forms the DARS Way": http://accessibility.hhs.texas.gov/docs/word/WordFormsDARSWay.docx

Also available on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oimoTFdXKLo&feature=youtu.be

The DARS Way offers two ways around the 138-character limit.

First, the Help Text property for a form control in Word offers two fields for content:
- Status Bar has room for 138 characters. Anything entered here is automatically announced by the screen reader when the form control accepts focus.
- Help Key (F1) has room for another 213 characters. If this field contains anything--even a blank space--the screen reader should announce "Press F1 for Help" as soon as it finishes announcing the contents of the Status Bar.

So between those two fields, you have room for 351 characters. There is a bit of art to separating the information when it runs over 138, but it usually isn't hard to find a reasonable approach.

The second method is not my favorite, but it does work for many people. When 351 characters isn't enough, the DARS Way is to add more text input controls and use their Status Bar and Help Key fields as a container for the rest of those instructions. Of course, this has a few problems:
- As a text input, this container will accept keystrokes. Information entered here should get ignored, but if the user presses a key for a character, it will populate this input.
- You have to hide this container from people who can see.

The DARS Way offers a simple workaround to let people who cannot see know that they should not enter text in this form input: start the contents of the Status Bar with "Info." This gives them a clue to ignore the "Edit" prompt announced by the screen reader after it has announced the Status Bar.

In the DARS Way, you can hide these additional text inputs--I'll call them Info fields--from the visual interface by making them narrow. In the properties of the Info field, set Maximum Width to 1 character. (If you set it to 0 characters, Word will skip right past the field. With or without a screen reader, you won't know it's there.)

To make the Info field become a sliver, select it and change the font size to 1 point. (You will have to key the "1" in; the lowest you can select is 8 point.) While you're in the Font interface, you can reduce the Info field to a pinpoint by making the font super- or subscript, too.

Unfortunately, hiding the Info fields doesn't give us fewer problems. It just changes the nature of the problem. When a document is set up to be completed as a form in Word, it's protected so the user can change only the content and state of the form controls. To move from field to field, you must press the tab key.

So you open the form, and the focus is in an Info field--not "Name," or whatever your first actual form field is. If you start typing, you will see no change--unless your eyes are very sharp--and you will hear a beep or see a flash when you enter more than the maximum number of characters the Info field will accept.

If there is a lot of text, you might have to press the tab key several times before a real form input takes focus. You will have to stay alert to make sure you are always entering information in a real field--and that it's the right field.

If you can't see well, it can be that much more frustrating to have to press the tab more than once to skip from one field you must complete to the next.

And that's why Joseph suggested you use PDF or HTML.

Cliff

Cliff Tyllick
EIR Accessibility Coordinator
Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS)
512-438-2494
<EMAIL REMOVED>