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Re: Accessibility of Word and PowerPoint

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From: Mark Rew
Date: Sep 21, 2001 10:13AM

As a blind JWF reader user I find PDF 5.0 very easy to access the text. Also,
graphics can be tagged to add meaning. Word is accessible with the exceptions
of some formulas and drawings. I still have allot of problems with Power
Point. In the last presentation I participated with, I wrote my portions of
the slide in Word, and had a coleague place all of the Power Point slides in a
text format for me.
Mark
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel Ward" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "WebAIM List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2001 11:59 AM
Subject: Accessibility of Word and PowerPoint

> Hi everybody,
>
> I have a question about document formats and Section 508. I understand that
> PDF is generally not considered an accessible format, but what about Word,
> PowerPoint, and Excel?
>
> One of our government client's web sites has certain documents only
> available in Word and PDF formats. If they have a Word but no text/HTML
> version, is that document considered accessible?
>
> The full version of Word 2000/XP may be considered accessible (according to
> Microsoft), but is the freeware Word Viewer accessible? I can't find any
> documentation either way. The Word Viewer seems to work okay with JAWS, but
> that doesn't necessarily mean it passes with Section 508. And what about
> the PowerPoint viewer?
>
> Because not all users will have Word, PowerPoint, or Excel on their
> machines, we need to provide links to the free viewer applications. This
> falls under item 1194.22(m) in the Section 508 guidelines, as I'd consider
> these to be "plug-ins."
>
> I guess the basic question I'm asking is: Does anyone know if these
> plug-ins are considered accessible?
>
> Thanks!
> Joel
>
>
>