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Re: MS Word Text Box Work Around

for

From: Karen McCall
Date: Mar 17, 2023 10:17AM

I agree about form controls in Word, just say NO!

I recommend creating the form template in Word, exporting it as a tagged PdF and adding the form controls in Acrobat; or, creating an HTML form.

The advantage to the PdF form is that the end-user can save a copy for their reference/archive.

Apologies, I didn't realize the text boxes were in a form.

Cheers, Karen

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Steve Green
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2023 12:00 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] MS Word Text Box Work Around

There are all sorts of accessibility problems with the form controls available in Word, so I recommend that they should not be used. In fact, I recommend that you don't use Word for forms.

If you really must use Word, one option is to create a two-column table with the text labels in the left-hand column. You treat the right-hand column as if it contained textboxes. It's not properly accessible, but it's about as good as you can get in Word. If you do this, I recommend adding instructions saying it's how the form is constructed, because it may not be obvious.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd


-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Jim Homme
Sent: 17 March 2023 15:48
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [WebAIM] MS Word Text Box Work Around

Hi,
This comes from me, totally blind, with a visual question. I have a document with a text box that the screen reader cannot read. The text box is on the right with text on the left. Would it work visually if I put the part of the document with the text box and other text in its own section, make a left column with the text the screen reader can read, and a right column with extracted text from the text box, and a border around the right column? I can't send the document. It's confidential. Just asking for visual reasons for the future.

Also, I don't understand how text boxes usually act visually and trying to learn.

Thanks.

Jim

=========Jim Homme: He, Him, His
Senior Digital Accessibility Consultant
Bender Consulting Services
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