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Re: accessible word-wrap in word?

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From: Preast, Vanessa
Date: Sep 19, 2016 5:05AM

Not sure I understand the question, so I'll just describe further, and hopefully I'm hitting what you're asking for.

Faculty write grants and submit publications using Word, typically. I assume these files are going to an editor who actually formats them for final publication in journals, etc. These publications usually come along with certain style requirements, including number of pages. Thus, some faculty members use word-wrapping to ensure that their proposal does not exceed the page limit. However, these faculty members have also discovered that not only are the floating images/textboxes not accessible in Word, but they also might cause the images to reposition themselves in unexpected ways. The faculty are mostly concerned about the latter issue, but I'm hoping there is an accessible solution that takes care of both issues.

I can check with the faculty, but I'm seriously doubting that they'd want to learn some publishing software. All our faculty have Word and most faculty have at least basic word processing skills. Thus, I suspect that the faculty would be more willing to incorporate a few accessibility-related processes when making Word documents than to learn a whole new software system. (A new system could be so much of a barrier that they might want to give up on the accessibility initiatives.)

Best,
Vanessa

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jamous, JP
Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2016 7:03 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] accessible word-wrap in word?

Are those for MSWord document or are you using MSWord for authoring purposes?




**************************************************

Jean-Pierre Jamous
Digital Accessibility Specialist & Developer UI Accessibility Team

SME for EBN Include
Digital Accessibility Specialist & Blind and Visually Impaired Expert

The only limitations in life are those we set for ourselves

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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Preast, Vanessa
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2016 10:28 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [WebAIM] accessible word-wrap in word?

From what I can tell, floating images and textboxes are not accessible in Word.

We have some individuals who want to be able to wrap text around an image. However, making the image in line with the text does not seem to permit wrapping. The only way I've been able to think of to do this is to make columns surrounding the image and a block of text that would fit alongside. It seems to work somewhat but is kinda clunky.

Do you have any other techniques you use to wrap text around an image and image caption in word?

Thanks,
Vanessa

Vanessa Preast, Ph.D. DVM
Digital Accessibility & Instructional Specialist

DES MOINES UNIVERSITY
Center for Teaching and Learning
3200 Grand Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50312

515.271.1535
<EMAIL REMOVED>