Comments from Participants

The independent-study, video-based online training course Accessible Documents: Word, PowerPoint, & Acrobat course launched in 2018. The following comments are a sample of the feedback we have received from over 10,000 participants.

2023

I already had some understanding of document accessibility, but not as it related specifically to excel, and with how often we are working off spreadsheets, it is great to better understand how we can make sure all is accessible, not just forms and other text-based documents.

I have recommended this course to everyone who has asked, and I am working with my institutional vice presidents to have this incorporated into departmental trainings.

Having both text and video was most helpful. I can't always watch a video if I'm in the library, but having the text/images as well allowed me to get through the course in a timely manner.

It was very informative and well-structured. Thank you!

I was afraid I would forget material between the weekly sessions, but the break actually helped, and I felt I was able to retain the information I learned and apply it in the following weeks.

Overall, I enjoyed the course. It was nice that the training wasn't super long. The training was filled with a lot of good information, but not too much information. The balance in material vs. time made learning the material stress free and easy to comprehend.

I really liked the fact that all videos have a transcription—so helpful!

Going into the course, I knew almost nothing about creating accessible documents. I feel much more confident now that I have taken this course. I have already started using the skills I learned, particularly regarding PDFs.

This course has been amazing. I have been able to learn so much. Everything was super useful. I like the foundation we were given and how the course evolved.

I really appreciated the attention to the differences between the mac and windows interfaces on the different programs!

I am grateful this course was simple to understand and the quick videos were extremely helpful for retaining information.

The layout of the Canvas LMS was really easy to follow. The range of materials were helpful and the module I'll probably use the most is the info on Tables and Powerpoints.

Thank you! I feel so much more confident with creating accessible documents.

I really liked the assignments that were interactive and allowed me to practice.

It is an excellent course. I would recommend it to anyone who hopes to teach online courses.

I am definitely already more mindful of color, placement, and size of text as I prepare presentation materials.

This is definitely applicable to me, as it will allow me to make user friendly reports/presentations on Word and PPT.

This course was SO helpful! It was great to re-hear many of the topics and the explanations were so clear and easy to follow.

It was the first time that I understood accessibility is for many disabilities beyond sight impairment. I cannot tell you how much more I understand when I put it in perspective.

The timing of the learning modules was perfect—I needed time to learn, and it had to fit into my busy work schedule, and the units weren’t spaced out too far to the point of forgetting what I learned in the previous module.

This class should be required for any company working with Microsoft Suite and Adobe PDFs. Everyone can relatively quickly learn how to make Word, Power Point or PDF accessible.

This comprehensive, well-designed course provided was excellent and covered a lot of information, including Windows and Mac OS workflows. This was a very well-structured course and I would recommend it to colleagues.

Perfect pacing and length for working people.

This course was great! I think the most helpful information was just learning how screen readers read documents. I had no idea that using the style guide on Word is super important.

Having the ability to follow along and test my understanding of the content using the example documents was very helpful. This really helped me to see what I had understood and missed in the course content. I have already recommended this to others.

This has strengthened and honed the skills that I use in everyday practice in my position.

What I thought I knew about creating accessible documents didn't even compare to what I learned.

The hands-on exercises were very useful. These exercises gave me the opportunity to practice creating and evaluating accessible documents. This helped me to solidify the concepts I had learned and to identify areas where I needed more practice.

Overall, I found the document accessibility course to be very informative and helpful. I learned a lot about the principles of document accessibility and the specific requirements of the WCAG guidelines. I am now better equipped to create accessible documents that are accessible to everyone.

I have been recommending this course as the absolutely best organized and most accessible training course I have ever taken—not an exaggeration. I highly commend the designers and experts involved in the course development. The application of the POUR principles as well as its universal design resulted in an easy-to-follow and informative course. The open quiz design encouraged success resulting in greater motivation. A heartfelt Bravo! to all involved. This experience was exactly the high quality and well-thought out product I would expect from WebAIM. Thank you to the California Community College system for making it possible for the CCC faculty to participate.

I still have a lot to learn, but I feel this course greatly improved my skills. I have been rewriting my classroom documents using what I have learned.

This information is useful on a regular basis. I keep recommending this course to other employees.

I enjoyed learning different ways to support our students. I can share this newfound information with some of our other teachers.

2022

I know quite a bit about accessibility, and I still learned more! The sections on PDFs and Excel were particularly helpful for me.

Our agency is really focusing on ADA accessible documents. This is very helpful to get us more compliant.

I learned so much about Word, PPT, Excel, and PDF! I have loved seeing how I can improve my skills with the software and incorporate accessibility. Now, that I have been introduced to accessibility, I see how I can implement the tools to create accessible documents… Thank you for providing this course!

I've already started using what I've learned. It's easy to implement and makes a big difference.

This is one of the best training courses I've taken. There was so much great material, and it was so well organized.

Thank you for offering this! It has been extremely helpful to me! I've already put this knowledge to work!!

I thought the entire course was extremely beneficial and at a great pace.

I loved how you provided videos along with images and text. Thank you! I highly recommend this course.

I thoroughly enjoyed the course and would highly recommend it to my peers. Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to take this valuable course.

This was the most comprehensive and detailed courses I have taken in accessibility. This is the first course that addressed accessibility in a .pdf, and I really appreciate your expertise in this area.

The quizzes really helped make sure I understood the material and allowed me to go back and find answers that I might have missed.

I enjoyed the course! I would recommend it for student employees, faculty, or staff just getting started with their remediation efforts.

Thank you so much for providing this! I learned so much that I really feel that I can implement right away. I think that everyone should be asked to take a course like this to ensure the documents that we are creating are as accessible and inclusive as possible!

It was great information. I like the online-asynchronous delivery of content. Also, I like being able to read the content and view a video. This gave me great options for review and elaboration on the parts I needed more time to process.

This is a great online course for people needing to know more about accessible documents.

I already have updated many of my scripted email responses to better support Screen Reader Tech.

I do not typically like online courses, but I really enjoyed and did well with this format. I really enjoyed the option to either read the materials or to watch & listen to the videos.

I have been looking for the opportunity to take a training on this topic for so long and you guys hit the nail on the head! Thank you!

The structure was excellent. I was able to work through the examples at a reasonable pace while still progressing. I appreciated the mixed media approach to learning. Being able to watch the video and then review the text below was helpful to retain information!

I have learned so much from this course. I have learned way more about Microsoft word and PowerPoint than I ever have before. And I'm so grateful to be a part of it and would gladly do it again.

It definitely opened my eyes to so many areas that are so important and easy to implement!

2021

This was an EXTREMELY helpful course. Very practical information. I love that it was taught like I didn't know what I was doing because 1) I didn't. 2) Now I can help others create accessible documents.

I liked the structure and flow of content to make Word documents in an Accessible format.

I learned a lot about how to format things so that all kinds of media are accessible to many different people via the internet.

I like that each section listed objectives. Downloadable examples and self-check corrected versions were useful.

I'll be able to explain the value of good document structure and have more arguments for well-templated slide decks.

It was very useful to see how some of the documents appear to students with disabilities, for example how a document is read to them by the [screen] reader if the document is not properly formatted.

The practice materials really helped me solidify my knowledge.

This course was amazing! I learned so much and will use what I learned on a daily basis. Thank you!

I really appreciated this course. The examples, videos, outlines, and opportunities to practice made this a great course, I think all employees should have to take it.

I will strongly recommend this course to colleagues.

Thank you for offering this course. I have been trying to do some of these things without any guidance. This training showed me not only how—but why—we need to make our documents accessible.

Wow—this was an excellent course. I felt like I had intermediate knowledge about how to make things accessible, but this course really helped me take it to another level.

I really, really appreciated that I could either listen or read the material. I found myself doing one, the other, or both depending on what was being covered. Although I don't have a learning disability, the UDL/flexibility of the tools illustrated how EVERY student benefits from multiple modes of information and reaffirmed why I should always be doing this in class.

I thought it was a great course, and I would love to take more in the future. I learned a lot about the importance of accessibility, and hope that more staff and faculty take the course.

I have already used what I learned. The course is very well done.

The course was designed for all levels, which I appreciated because I am not 'IT literate.'

I have enrolled two of our student assistants in this and they are learning a ton! Thank you for making this available.

The videos were great as well as the supporting written information with screen shots. The course was well organized and easy to follow.

THANK YOU! This was an awesome course and very well thought out and executed.

I learned a lot through this workshop - thanks so much for offering clear guidance and practice opportunities (in PC and Mac versions).

I have attended multiple accessibility workshops on my campus, but they were not able to cover all of the topics in this detailed course. In particular, the sections on charts and Excel were new to me.

I think this course was designed very strongly and fits the needs of educators learning about document accessibility.

Although I have a pretty technical background, I did not need to call upon it to understand the content of this course. I would recommend this course for everyone.

I loved the parts where you let us hear what the screen reader says. That really helps to show what works and what doesn't work, how confusing the text can be, and how important alt text and layout is.

Make more classes about accessibility, and sign me up.

This was an excellent course. I already have recommended it to several colleagues.

Now every document I create, I think about how to make it more accessible.

Excellent content and the four-week structure was perfect to take this course while doing the regular full-time job.

The course was very useful to me. It was in simple language and helped me a lot. I want to thank to the whole team for working hard and for creating such a helpful course. Now I can make a accessible documents and teach others about the importance of accessible documents and how to make them.

I particularly like the depth of coverage of PDF accessibility.

I appreciate the opportunity to participate and am confident I'll be able implement much of what I've learned.

I can immediately use this information.

The structure of the course provides opportunities to spend more or less itme on the sections where one is more or less knowledgeable. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity!

2020

I found this course really interesting and extremely helpful in thinking about accessibility and design of future documents.

Excellent course with perfect amount of time allocated per session.

The acquired knowledge will make a substantial difference in the communicational approach with student professors and staff.

This course has paid off for me in every respect, not only as far as it concerns my computer skills, but also on a personal level. I can definitely recommend this course.

Great course. I have taken other courses, but this one was by far the best one I have taken.

I appreciated better understanding the accessibility challenges with many types of documents. I especially appreciated seeing these documents from the perspective of those using screen readers.

I absolutely loved the bonus Microsoft Excel course. It made me realize really how difficult it is to use Excel as an ADA compliant source. This will help be a driving force on what programs to use and not use when creating ADA documents.

I liked that you provide both a video and text version of each lesson. I could watch the video then easily find the information in the text if I needed a refresher.

I now know how to complete an accessibility check in PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and in PDF. Having the checklists of what areas to look for in the check are helpful. I use the contrast checker frequently in my practice.

I will reference the material when making presentations.

I have already applied information learned in creating documents. Our team created a template in Microsoft Office to use for all future documents with special considerations to accessibility features.

This course was excellent. I have been struggling alone for almost a year teaching myself how to do accessible documents. This course taught me so much more! Thank you for the easy-to-understand training, complete with pictures.

I have a greater understanding of the purpose and needs for accessible documents. It is very important for us to know about the impact of accessibility and how to ensure that we can reach and support many people with different types of disabilities.

I learned an incredible amount about creating accessible documents in this course. Well worth the time and effort.

Every time I create an Excel, Word, and PDF document now I have the principles in mind. Very applicable.

I really liked the examples/activities provided which allowed you to try it yourself before checking the solution manual.

One of the best trainings in my life. I learned a lot and had a couple of refreshers too.

I want to incorporate these practices in my work, and the work of everyone at my institution.

Having both video and text with images was great as I learn in a variety of ways so when I didn't understand what I was seeing I could revisit it in another format.

Seeing the examples of an accessible document vs an inaccessible document was most useful.

I really enjoyed the course and feel better prepared to make documents accessible. I enjoyed the flexible format of the course that allowed me to learn when my schedule permitted.

It has opened my eyes to the complexity of accessibility needs for my students.

The structure worked perfectly for me and really kept me on track.

I found the videos to be very helpful - much easier to follow along when someone is "showing" rather than just read about how to perform a skill.

I am already using the information I learned in this course to better help my students. Thank you so much!

The course videos were excellent and most useful. I have been recommending your course to many colleagues and friends!

Thanks for the course! I really think this needs to be more widely known and taught information as it goes beyond disability and is not overly difficult to do.

The videos as well as the practice documents were very helpful. Collaborating with Faculty regarding accessible documents will be easier due to this training.

I really think this information is important for everyone. An inaccurate assumption is that anything in digital media is automatically accessible.

I liked the leeway that was available for me to complete work on my own time with my own schedule.

I found it very informative and felt that the tips were rather easy to consider and add into work.

This material is very relevant to the work I do as a student employee.

I particularly liked the WCAG standards for color contrast as well as the WebAIM Color Contrast Checker with the recommended extensions to check web page color contrasts. This was always something I wanted more information on.

I loved how understandable the course made everything and how well the material was presented. A job well done.

Loved the text and the video format!!! Universal design in play.

I liked the format and the way I could study independently at my own pace.

I feel more confident using my skills.

Thank you very much for this—it has already been quite useful

I thought that the videos were very effective and helpful in giving a visual aspect of the lessons.

"I like that you practice what you preach. My hearing isn't perfect, so I'm a visual person. Nice to see and read the information. I also liked the test questions. There were no "trick" ones, unlike some other training sessions I've taken. They seemed to test real knowledge."

I'm an instructional designer and this work is crucial for online course development.... I really appreciated the practical, hands-on exercises to apply my understanding of the concepts. I also loved the demonstration of how an online course can be put together using best practices—that is, the video and then complete HTML of the content discussed. Very helpful!

2019

I liked the organization of the course, particularly the practice handouts.

Just a thank you for providing a learning experience that truly helped for an affordable price.

The most useful part of this course was learning how to utilize the accessibility and contrast checkers, and how to check my documents to make sure they are accessible to all users.

I had some issues when registering (I entered the wrong email address) and the customer service at WebAIM was excellent! The course was excellent. The videos were comprehensible and easy to follow.

I am glad I took the course! I learned a lot of new things!

Thank you for offering such a user friendly and organized course! I really appreciated the content for each module being offered in both video and text. I am more of a visual learner so it was very helpful for me to be able to read the information as well.

Thank you so much for allowing me to change the speed of the spoken words in the video.

Very helpful course! I'm glad that I took the course. It will be extremely useful in my work moving forward.

Solid information for anyone working in Accessibility space.

This was a very helpful 101 course! The material was presented at an appropriate level and the videos presented the information in a very clear way. Thanks for a great introduction to accessible documents.

I enjoyed the combination of instructional videos and practice documents and all of the resource links.

I really appreciate the course. It was beautifully designed, very helpful, and made me feel a LOT more confident about making my documents accessible. Thank you for all you do!

I felt that I learned something new with each module.

I found the learning experience itself to be very valuable. I realized that having both the video and the guide helped me better understand everything. The PPT & presentation are very well done as well -- I've learned about how to present content more effectively from the Web Accessibility training and this course.

My confidence in understanding PDF documents has increased due to this course.

I knew very little about accessible formatting in Word prior to this course. I now know a lot more! I used it yesterday while checking the accessibility of a PDF document.

Loved this course! Also—WebAIM rocks! I use your resources almost every day. They are so much easier to use than anything else out there!

The videos were great and I wanted more. I also liked the full transcript of each video. The transcripts made it easy to review information after the fact.

I have already started to use what I learned in this course. But most important I am using it confidently.

I really appreciated how well-organized the course was. The workload was balanced from week to week, and it was easy to incorporate the course into my work schedule.

There are lots of takeaways that I will be implementing in my work.

I really enjoyed the course, and I'm excited to implement what I've learned in my work and share these practices with my organization. I'm proud to work for an organization that strives to make our services more accessible, and the WebAIM Accessible Documents course is allowing us to do that.

I provide training on accessible course content for university faculty and revised the portion of my courses addressing PDF accessibility after taking this course.

I liked that I had time beyond the 4-week structure to complete the course. Everything about the courses was useful! I have thoroughly learned a lot through this course.

I gained a lot of knowledge about things that are relevant to me and my position. I will immediately put into practice what I learned in this course.

What I learned will impact the materials I create for trainings.

I thought this format was user friendly and very helpful.

I appreciated the structure/design of the course. The objectives for each section were clear. I like that both a video and the text equivalent was included.

I liked the end-of-topic quizzes. This gave me feedback on content I may not have absorbed correctly or areas that I needed to review.

The course was presented in a logical manner, which helped me to mentally organize and retain the material. The bite-sized materials were just right for me to digest a lesson, and then progress to the next lesson in a day or so.

I liked watching the videos. Some I watched a couple of times.

I really liked that the content was available in both video and text format. I also liked the end of topic quizzes. This gave me feedback on content I may not have absorbed correctly or areas that I needed to review.

I especially liked the occasional use of the [screen reading software] during the modules. Hearing what an actual user would experience was extremely helpful in understanding the process. I also appreciated the notes that were readily available—rather than furiously typing my own notes, using those provided made for a much better learning experience. Also appreciated the PC and Mac examples.

The section on PDFs was the most useful to me as they are the most challenging to make accessible. I also liked the opportunity to be hands-on with working on Word and PPT documents.

The information was invaluable, the pace was good. The frequent quizzes reinforced the lessons. It was easy to keep on track. Thanks so much—this was a very good experience that I've already started implementing in my workplace.

I learned about how the overall message of how our actions in creating docs affects people with disabilities. And to use the tools provided within the software. There are so many things we don't think about or simply disregard when creating docs.

2018

I would recommend this to both new and experienced document teams. Even with some experience with this, I picked up a few tricks!

This training program was very well structured, and I really appreciated how the information was divided into four modules making the learning process easy.

It definitely provides information on how to build accessible Word and PowerPoint files, as well as use the accessibility features in Word, PowerPoint, and Acrobat.

It was a wonderful course, well planned, with engaging content.

It kept me focused so that I got it done, but wasn't so time consuming as to be overwhelming.

Not only will I use what I've learned in the documents I directly create, but I will attempt to get others in my organization to take this course as well.

This course helped me not only develop more knowledge of document accessibility, but the course was formatted in a way that it was accessible by all types of learners. Loved that!

Great starting point for folks new to document accessibility, and a great refresher for those of us that have more knowledge.

WebAIM is on the top of my web accessibility 'go to' resource list. You guys ROCK! Keep up the good work.

The overall format and structure were intuitive and easy to learn from. The manual check guides provided the most value that I would not have easily gained elsewhere.

I thought it was an excellent course, well prepared and presented. In fact, I already have recommended it to others.

Well-paced and I enjoyed learning more concretely when utilizing the guide, video with open captioning, the practice example files, and the resources in a synchronized manner.

Thanks for the course! It was a great reminder and learning experience. As a screen reader user new to working in the accessibility field, it was important for me to learn how I can make documents accessible and, better yet, how I can explain to others how to do it.

Overall it was a fantastic course and I am very happy with what I learned and the way the content was presented. Great work!

The actual remediation exercise was FANTASTIC. It was so eye-opening to compare my work to an exemplar. We hope to send many more people to this course. Thank you for such a clear, focused session on such an important topic!

I enjoyed the course and learned more than I had anticipated. The pace of the videos allowed me to take detailed notes while also following along and not missing anything.

I've taken advanced courses in all three of the software packages discussed in this course and didn't know about this functionality! I really appreciate this course.

This was wonderful, thank you!

Exceeded expectations. I loved the course.

I hope my institution will provide funds for several of my colleagues to take this course too!

Thank you SO much for the opportunity to take this course. I attended the June WebAIM training and learned so much. Getting to take this course was the icing on top. I now feel equipped to start tackling accessiblity projects!

The same information was delivered in multiple ways to tailor to each learning style.

Not only did I learn practical skills for creating accessible documents, and gain a broader knowledge of the specific challenges being addressed, but this course was a great example of what accessibility looks like and what it is to engage with accessible content. I caption videos in my work and use headings appropriately for online content, but when both were part of my own learning, I was surprised at the value of both and I was keenly aware of how both were used with your content. And, while headings maybe obvious, I have now experienced their value. Thank you!

I appreciated the opportunity to take this course, in this format, and at a reasonable cost. I would be open to taking others in the future. I felt my time was well spent!

The entire course was useful and helped answer a lot of "How Do I..." questions.

I want to thank the instructor and WebAIM team for offering this wonderful course to me. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who wishes to gain deeper knowledge on document accessibility! Thank you!

I liked that you could read the content and/or watch the video. The course felt very organized and the flow of material felt very intuitive.

This course was exactly what I needed. It filled some gaps and furthered my knowledge in document accessibility.