WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: accessible word-wrap in word?

for

From: Sawyer, Tamara (MMB)
Date: Sep 20, 2016 7:20AM

Hi Vanessa,

When working with images in MS Word, there are several things the author must do to make them accessible. They include placing the image In Line with text. As you have noticed, that means that any subsequent text will not wrap around the image. To make it wrap around the image, use columns. As you have noted, this seems rather futzy when you first learn it, but with practice, it goes really quickly. This works best if the image is left justified, as it will be set up to read the image, then the accompanying text. If the image is right justified, you have to be extra careful of the reading order. Of course, converting your document into a PDF will allow you to change the reading order to exactly how you want it, but if you aren't going to convert it, using columns is the next best thing. I hope this helps.


TAMARA SAWYER | ACCESSIBILITY COORDINATOR | MANAGEMENT SERVICES DIVISION
MINNESOTA MANAGEMENT & BUDGET
651.259.3792 | <EMAIL REMOVED> | MN.GOV/MMB





-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Avila [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2016 6:44 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] accessible word-wrap in word?

Vanessa, regarding floating images and accessibility - this may be a situation where converting to PDF for publication would be more accessible to some users. Word has limitations and the only other option might be to provide alternatives to the images elsewhere in the document - but this is difficult and might add to the word count as well.

Jonathan

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 19, 2016, at 7:05 AM, Preast, Vanessa < <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >> wrote:

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> <mailto: <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

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














-----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> <mailto: <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> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >