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Thread: MS Word accessibility supported for images?
Number of posts in this thread: 8 (In chronological order)
From: Mark Magennis
Date: Thu, Aug 20 2009 4:40AM
Subject: MS Word accessibility supported for images?
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Can the use of text alternatives with images in Microsoft Word (DOC
format) files be said to be accessibility supported? That is, are
enough assistive technologies able to read the alt text if it is there?
Thanks,
Mark
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From: Moore,Michael
Date: Thu, Aug 20 2009 7:05AM
Subject: Re: MS Word accessibility supported for images?
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Well, yes and no. We have found with JAWS 9 and 10 and Office 2007 that the alternative text will be announced by the screen reader, just not consistently. We have not been able to determine what causes the variable behavior. There are also other methods that screen reader users can use while in Word to access the alternative text in the images, but in practice I have not observed many people doing this.
If the document is converted to PDF or HTML the alternative text will definitely be present for the user. This saves a step when working from Word.
More important in Word documents, is the use of styles to mark up headings. These are made available to the JAWS screen reader users and greatly improve navigation through the document. I am not sure about other ATs. These will also convert to headings in HTML and PDF.
One thing to definitely avoid within Word documents are "text areas." These little gems that are frequently used for callouts, and misused for many other purposes, are generally missed by screen reader users. They do not appear within the normal document flow and thus are difficult to find. I have seen several hacks to get around the issue, but in practice I have not seen them work well in any version of JAWS that we have tested.
Mike Moore
From: Julie Strothman
Date: Thu, Aug 20 2009 7:25AM
Subject: Re: MS Word accessibility supported for images?
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Is it true that Word 2008 for Mac does not have the ability to add alternate
text?
I've not been able to find it, if you can--it's not an option in the 'Format
Picture' dialog box tabs, nor in the formatting pane.
-Julie Strothman
On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 9:03 AM, Moore,Michael <
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Well, yes and no. We have found with JAWS 9 and 10 and Office 2007 that the
> alternative text will be announced by the screen reader, just not
> consistently. We have not been able to determine what causes the variable
> behavior. There are also other methods that screen reader users can use
> while in Word to access the alternative text in the images, but in practice
> I have not observed many people doing this.
>
> If the document is converted to PDF or HTML the alternative text will
> definitely be present for the user. This saves a step when working from
> Word.
>
> More important in Word documents, is the use of styles to mark up headings.
> These are made available to the JAWS screen reader users and greatly improve
> navigation through the document. I am not sure about other ATs. These will
> also convert to headings in HTML and PDF.
>
> One thing to definitely avoid within Word documents are "text areas." These
> little gems that are frequently used for callouts, and misused for many
> other purposes, are generally missed by screen reader users. They do not
> appear within the normal document flow and thus are difficult to find. I
> have seen several hacks to get around the issue, but in practice I have not
> seen them work well in any version of JAWS that we have tested.
>
> Mike Moore
>
>
From: Moore,Michael
Date: Thu, Aug 20 2009 7:30AM
Subject: Re: MS Word accessibility supported for images?
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In the Windows versions it can be found within the size dialog. I am not sure about the Mac but that's where I would start.
Mike Moore
(512) 424-4159
From: Cliff Tyllick
Date: Thu, Aug 20 2009 8:30AM
Subject: Re: MS Word accessibility supported for images?
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Good points, Mike. I'm glad to hear that at least some alt text is read in Word 2007.
I have one minor but important correction: In Word, those troublesome "text areas" are actually called "text boxes." (I just want to be sure everyone knows exactly what you mean.)
In my experience, they have been used to try to fix bad writing. It doesn't work. For that reason, I am tickled to find that AT does not play well with them. With that fact at my side, I have a much stronger argument for fixing the document for everyone.
Cliff
Cliff Tyllick
Web development coordinator
Agency Communications Division
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
512-239-4516
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>>> "Moore,Michael" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > 8/20/2009 8:03 AM >>>
Well, yes and no. We have found with JAWS 9 and 10 and Office 2007 that the alternative text will be announced by the screen reader, just not consistently. We have not been able to determine what causes the variable behavior. There are also other methods that screen reader users can use while in Word to access the alternative text in the images, but in practice I have not observed many people doing this.
If the document is converted to PDF or HTML the alternative text will definitely be present for the user. This saves a step when working from Word.
More important in Word documents, is the use of styles to mark up headings. These are made available to the JAWS screen reader users and greatly improve navigation through the document. I am not sure about other ATs. These will also convert to headings in HTML and PDF.
One thing to definitely avoid within Word documents are "text areas." These little gems that are frequently used for callouts, and misused for many other purposes, are generally missed by screen reader users. They do not appear within the normal document flow and thus are difficult to find. I have seen several hacks to get around the issue, but in practice I have not seen them work well in any version of JAWS that we have tested.
Mike Moore
From: Karlen Communications
Date: Thu, Aug 20 2009 6:50PM
Subject: Re: MS Word accessibility supported for images?
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You are right in that Office for Mac doesn't let you provide Alt text. It is
also not accessible.
The other document part to avoid is the "paragraph frame" which is like a
text box but has a different name. In Word 2007 the new content controls are
inaccessible but using legacy controls for forms provides the same level of
accessibility as in Word 2003. Paragraph frames can be found in the new
style or modify style dialog under the Format button. Just say no!
I always recommend that captions be used for tables, images and equations in
the event that the document is printed or the Alt Text is not rendered to
the end user. The caption can be the same text as the Alt Text or different
text. As a person using a screen reader I'd rather use my keyboard commands
to skip over redundant information than to miss something.
Cheers, Karen
From: Cliff Tyllick
Date: Thu, Aug 20 2009 10:45PM
Subject: Re: MS Word accessibility supported for images?
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Mike, have you checked to be sure whether the "layout" setting for the image format is "in line with text"? If my hunch is right, it will be for all the images for which JAWS announces the "alt" text, and it won't be for any of the images JAWS skips.
All the other settings make the image float. That causes all kinds of problems in Word 2003. For example, with any setting other than "in line with text," the caption to the image will wind up in a text box, and, if you try to get Word to generate a list of figures, none of those floating images will appear in that list.
Cliff
>>> "Moore,Michael" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > 08/20/09 8:04 AM >>>
Well, yes and no. We have found with JAWS 9 and 10 and Office 2007 that the alternative text will be announced by the screen reader, just not consistently. We have not been able to determine what causes the variable behavior. There are also other methods that screen reader users can use while in Word to access the alternative text in the images, but in practice I have not observed many people doing this.
If the document is converted to PDF or HTML the alternative text will definitely be present for the user. This saves a step when working from Word.
More important in Word documents, is the use of styles to mark up headings. These are made available to the JAWS screen reader users and greatly improve navigation through the document. I am not sure about other ATs. These will also convert to headings in HTML and PDF.
One thing to definitely avoid within Word documents are "text areas." These little gems that are frequently used for callouts, and misused for many other purposes, are generally missed by screen reader users. They do not appear within the normal document flow and thus are difficult to find. I have seen several hacks to get around the issue, but in practice I have not seen them work well in any version of JAWS that we have tested.
Mike Moore
From: Moore,Michael
Date: Fri, Aug 21 2009 6:15AM
Subject: Re: MS Word accessibility supported for images?
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Cliff,
I will see if Dan and I can set up a set of experiments next week. Since we are testing JAWS 9 and 10 at this time we may be able to get so fairly good data, at least for JAWS and Office 2007 anyway.
Mike