Accessible PDF – Intro/Advanced

Course Specifications:

Courseware: MS Office Accessibility

Software: Microsoft Office 2003

Course length: One day (Introduction half day session/Advanced half day session)

Course Description:

In this course you will learn how to use the newest version of Adobe Acrobat to create documents that are accessible to screen readers and other assistive computer technologies. This hands–on training will provide direct experience with creating accessible PDF documents from word processing applications (e.g., MS Office, Open Office, etc.) as well as the basic accessibility tools for remediating PDF documents. For the second half of the course, Adobe Acrobat now has the functionality to improve the accessibility of PDF documents and this hands–on class will focus on using the TouchUp Reading Order tool in Adobe Acrobat to improve PDF accessibility for images, data tables, and multi–column layouts as well as strategies for assessing the reading order of PDF documents. This session will also focus on the creation of accessible PDF forms using Adobe LiveCycle Designer.

Course Objective:

The objective of this course is to learn how to create documents that are accessible to screen readers and other assistive computer technologies. The objective of the second half of the course is learn how to utilize the Adobe Acrobat tools to improve PDF accessibility for images, data tables, and multi-column layouts.

Prerequisites:

To ensure the successful completion of Introduction to Accessible PDF we recommend students have a basic knowledge of MS Office 2003.

Delivery Method:

Instructor led, group-paced, classroom-delivery learning model with structured hands-on activities.

Course Content

Part 1: Introduction to PDF Accessibility

Lesson 1: Introduction

Topic 1A: Your instructors

Topic 1B: Your classmates

Topic 1C: Types of PDFs

Scanned
Searchable Text
Tagged

Lesson 2: Building an Accessible PDF from Scratch

Topic 2A: Anatomy of an MS Word Document

Topic 2B: Adding basic structure

Topic 2C: Adding images/alternative text

Topic 2D: Creating the PDF

Topic 2E: Testing the PDF

Lesson 3: Building an Accessible PDF from an Inaccessible PDF

Topic 3A: Adding tags

Topic 3B: Getting the structure right

Topic 3C: Fixing alternative text

Topic 3D: Decorative images

Topic 3E: Reading Order

Topic 3F: Testing the final document

Lesson 4: Things to avoid

Topic 4A: MS Publisher Files

Topic 4B: Tri-fold and Quad-fold Brochures

Topic 4C: Large/Complex documents

Lesson 5: Preview of Advanced Class

Topic 5A: Tables

Topic 5B: Forms

Topic 5C: Complex Layouts/MultiColumn

Topic 5D: Scanned PDFs

Part 2: Advanced PDF Accessibility

Lesson 1: Introductions

Topic 1A: Your instructors

Topic 1B: Your classmates

Topic 1C: Types of PDFs

Scanned
Searchable
Tagged

Lesson 2: Quick Review of Basics

Topic 2A: Add structure in MS Word

Headings
Lists
Images

Topic 2B: What if you only have a PDF? Basic Workflow – AARP

Topic 2C: Adding tags to the document

Topic 2D: Assessing Order

Use Assistive Computer Technology
Use Adobe Read Out Loud
Save As Text (Accessible)

Topic 2E: Repairing Content/Adding Structure

Controlling Order- Order Panel
Zoning and Marking Text- TouchUp Reading Order.

Topic 2F: Headings

Topic 2G: Images

Topic 2H: Perform Assessment process again

Lesson 3: Complex/Multi-Column Layouts

Topic 3A: Creating a multi-column document in MS Word

Topic 3B: Word-Text Areas

Topic 3C: Generating and Testing the PDF

Lesson 4: Tables

Topic 4A: How screen readers work with tables

Topic 4B: Simple table from MS Word

Topic 4C: Complex table from MS Word

Topic 4D: Complex table from tagged PDF

Lesson 5: Forms

Topic 5A: How screen readers work with forms

Topic 5B: Creating an accessible PDF form from an MS Word document

Topic 5C: Adobe Form Designer – Complex interactive forms

Topic 5D: Form usability

Lesson 6: Scanned Documents

Topic 6A: Character Recognition

Topic 6B: Cleaning up the document

Topic 6C: Generating a tagged structured PDF