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Number of posts in this thread: 8 (In chronological order)

From: Joel Ward
Date: Fri, Sep 21 2001 10:04AM
Subject: Accessibility of Word and PowerPoint
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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

From: Mark Rew
Date: Fri, Sep 21 2001 10:13AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Word and PowerPoint
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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 ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "WebAIM List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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
>
>
>

From: Steve Rindsberg
Date: Fri, Sep 21 2001 11:10AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Word and PowerPoint
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I haven't looked at either PowerPoint or the PPT viewer from an
accessibility POV.
If the app or viewer is installed on a given computer already, it might not
be too bad for, say, a screen reader user to work with, depending on the
presentation itself.
What about HTML versions of the PPTs instead? PPT's own HTML isn't very
friendly, but we've got a tool that gives you a lot more control over the
HTML (and hence its accessibility) that PPT makes.
http://www.rdpslides.com/ppt2html/ has more information and example
conversions.

Steve Rindsberg
President, RDP http://www.rdpslide.com/
PowerPoint Add-ins http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools/
PowerPoint to HTML http://www.rdpslides.com/ppt2html/
Friday - Automatic FAQ software http://www.rdpslide.com/friday/
ZAP! - customizable online ordering software http://www.rdpslides.com/zap/

From: Michael Goddard
Date: Fri, Sep 21 2001 10:29AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Word and PowerPoint
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Adobe has added an Accessibility plug-in for Acrobat 5.0 which creates an
Accessible PDF document. I have not had the chance to fully test this but I
do know that it renders the text readable for screen readers and indentifies
various parts (images etc.) by tagging them etc.
For more information, I would check up on the www.adobe.com web site and
look for the Accessibility link.
HTH,
Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel Ward" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "WebAIM List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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
>
>
>

From: Steve Rindsberg
Date: Fri, Sep 21 2001 10:38AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Word and PowerPoint
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Mark,
You mentioned that you have problems with PowerPoint.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of the goals of our PowerPoint to
HTML converter is to make the content of the PowerPoint files accessible.
So far it works fairly well, but I'd very much like to work with a few
screen reader users to learn how I can improve it.
If you're interested, you can contact me off-list at = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Thanks!
Steve Rindsberg
President, RDP http://www.rdpslide.com/
PowerPoint Add-ins http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools/
PowerPoint to HTML http://www.rdpslides.com/ppt2html/
Friday - Automatic FAQ software http://www.rdpslide.com/friday/
ZAP! - customizable online ordering software http://www.rdpslides.com/zap/

From: Steve Rindsberg
Date: Fri, Sep 21 2001 10:48AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Word and PowerPoint
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>For more information, I would check up on the www.adobe.com web site and
>look for the Accessibility link.
access.adobe.com takes you directly to the accessibility information and is
probably a lot easier to navigate. And it loads way faster.

============================================================================Steve Rindsberg
President, RDP http://www.rdpslides.com/
PowerPoint Add-ins http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools/
PowerPoint to HTML http://www.rdpslides.com/ppt2html/
Friday - Automatic FAQ software http://www.rdpslides.com/friday/
ZAP! - customizable online ordering software http://www.rdpslides.com/zap/

From: Peter
Date: Mon, Sep 24 2001 2:35AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Word and PowerPoint
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This is very interesting stuff, please keep the discussion on this list (in
case you were thinking of taking it of...)
Peter

From: Steve Rindsberg
Date: Wed, Sep 26 2001 2:40PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Word and PowerPoint
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