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Page History
This page gathers documents that the Documentation Team has found or developed regarding Section 508 compliance. These documents will be posted in the appropriate place after consultation with other members of the Training and Development Team.
Accessibility Testing
The following table suggests ways you can test your ePublisher, Flare, and PDF output for accessibility.
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Ways to Test Your Output
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For more information, see
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Refer to the HHS accessibility checklists.
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Download the WAVE Firefox toolbar and view the help in Text-only view.
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Download an evaluation copy of JAWS and read the document out loud.
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Use the Adobe Read Out Loud feature to simulate what it would be like for other assistive technology (such as JAWS) to read your PDFs out loud.
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Turn off your monitor when you use either JAWS or Adobe Read Out Loud (this takes some practice with each tool) to simulate what it is like not to see what you are doing.
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Tab through the output to make sure that the reading order is logical.
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Creating Accessible Technical Documents at CBIIT
To make our documents compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, we must prepare our source files and then test our output files. The tools we currently use to create our source files, Adobe FrameMaker and Microsoft Word, both allow us to prepare for accessibility.
Our output files are currently in PDF and ePublisher WebHelp 5.0 formats. The tools we currently use to create those files, Adobe Acrobat 9 and WebWorks ePublisher Pro 9.2, contain tools of their own that check for how well files conform to the Section 508 accessibility standards. We can run those checks to see if we need to make any additional tweaks to our source files. We should avoid as much post-processing to output files as we can.
Most of our preparations for accessibility should be done in the source files. This document explains how to prepare a FrameMaker document for accessibility and links to procedures where you can accomplish the same goals in Word.
This section includes the following topics:
- Preparing FrameMaker Files For Accessibility
- Preparing Word Files For Accessibility
- Characteristics of Accessible PDFs
- Checking Documents for Accessibility
| Anchor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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The following table summarizes how to prepare a FrameMaker document for accessibility.
Step | Steps for creating accessible documents in FrameMaker | For more information, see |
|---|---|---|
1 | Design with accessibility in mind. Only use our template styles, including character styles for common formatting such as bold and italic. Resist overriding template styles. | |
2 | Use our latest FrameMaker template that consolidates all paragraph styles into each file in the book. | L:\Technical Writing\Templates\FrameMaker Templates\Current FM Templates |
3 | Add alternate text to images.
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4 | Use row and column headings and captions for all tables. Do not merge table rows or columns. Do not allow rows to break across pages. |
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5 | Use meaningful link anchors rather than URLs when possible. Use the Go to URL hypertext marker for all URLs in FrameMaker. |
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6 | In the PDF Setup dialog box, select Generate PDF Bookmarks, Generate Tagged PDF (click Default to tag all styles), and Create Named Destinations for All Paragraphs. |
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See the following sections for more detail on preparing your FrameMaker files for accessibility.
- Adding Alternate Text to Images
- Using Good Table Manners
- Naming Link Anchors
- Creating a Tagged PDF from FrameMaker
| Anchor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Alternate (alt) text is typically used for describing an image so that screen readers can read it aloud.
FrameMaker limits alternate text to 255 characters.
To add an alternate text descriptions to an image
- Place all graphics in anchored frames.
- Click an anchored frame one time to select it.
- Right-click the anchored frame and select Object Properties.
- Click the Object Attributes button. The Object Attributes dialog box appears.
- In the Alternate box, type an alternate text description for the content of the anchored frame.
- Actual text is for reading aloud the actual text, as in the case of a drop cap. For example, if the author is using a drop cap
Creating Accessible Technical Documents at CBIIT
To make our documents compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, we must prepare our source files and then test our output files. The tools we currently use to create our source files, Adobe FrameMaker and Microsoft Word, both allow us to prepare for accessibility.
Our output files are currently in PDF and ePublisher WebHelp 5.0 formats. The tools we currently use to create those files, Adobe Acrobat 9 and WebWorks ePublisher Pro 9.2, contain tools of their own that check for how well files conform to the Section 508 accessibility standards. We can run those checks to see if we need to make any additional tweaks to our source files. We should avoid as much post-processing to output files as we can.
Most of our preparations for accessibility should be done in the source files. This document explains how to prepare a FrameMaker document for accessibility and links to procedures where you can accomplish the same goals in Word.
This section includes the following topics:
- Preparing FrameMaker Files For Accessibility
- Preparing Word Files For Accessibility
- Characteristics of Accessible PDFs
- Checking Documents for Accessibility
...
The following table summarizes how to prepare a FrameMaker document for accessibility.
Step | Steps for creating accessible documents in FrameMaker | For more information, see |
|---|---|---|
1 | Design with accessibility in mind. Only use our template styles, including character styles for common formatting such as bold and italic. Resist overriding template styles. | |
2 | Use our latest FrameMaker template that consolidates all paragraph styles into each file in the book. | L:\Technical Writing\Templates\FrameMaker Templates\Current FM Templates |
3 | Add alternate text to images.
|
|
4 | Use row and column headings and captions for all tables. Do not merge table rows or columns. Do not allow rows to break across pages. |
|
5 | Use meaningful link anchors rather than URLs when possible. Use the Go to URL hypertext marker for all URLs in FrameMaker. |
|
6 | In the PDF Setup dialog box, select Generate PDF Bookmarks, Generate Tagged PDF (click Default to tag all styles), and Create Named Destinations for All Paragraphs. |
|
See the following sections for more detail on preparing your FrameMaker files for accessibility.
- Adding Alternate Text to Images
- Using Good Table Manners
- Naming Link Anchors
- Creating a Tagged PDF from FrameMaker
...
Alternate (alt) text is typically used for describing an image so that screen readers can read it aloud.
FrameMaker limits alternate text to 255 characters.
To add an alternate text descriptions to an image
- Place all graphics in anchored frames.
- Click an anchored frame one time to select it.
- Right-click the anchored frame and select Object Properties.
- Click the Object Attributes button. The Object Attributes dialog box appears.
- In the Alternate box, type an alternate text description for the content of the anchored frame.
- Actual text is for reading aloud the actual text, as in the case of a drop cap. For example, if the author is using a drop cap for the letter A in the word "Adobe" but still wants the screen readers to read the word as "Adobe" and not as "dobe," this can be done by filling in actual text.
- Click Set and then Set again. A screen reader can now read the alternate text.
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Both ePublisher and Acrobat contain accessibility tools that help spot glaring accessibility errors and remind us of accessibility issues that require manual checks. Using accessibility tools like these is really just one of the first steps toward Web accessibility.Other accessibility tools are available for free on the web, though this document does not review them. See http://www.webaim.org/articles/freetools/compare.php for a full review of free, online accessibility tools.Web accessibility.
Other accessibility tools are available for free on the web, though this document does not review them. See http://www.webaim.org/articles/freetools/compare.php for a full review of free, online accessibility tools.
The following table suggests ways you can test your ePublisher, Flare, and PDF output for accessibility.
Ways to Test Your Output | For more information, see |
|---|---|
Refer to the HHS accessibility checklists. | |
In ePublisher, run the accessibility report. Ignore errors about missing long descriptions and table summaries. If you use alternate text for graphics and include either a text introduction or caption for tables, you're covered on those. | |
Download the WAVE Firefox toolbar and view the help in Text-only view. | |
Download an evaluation copy of JAWS and read the document out loud. | |
Use the Adobe Read Out Loud feature to simulate what it would be like for other assistive technology (such as JAWS) to read your PDFs out loud. |
|
Turn off your monitor when you use either JAWS or Adobe Read Out Loud (this takes some practice with each tool) to simulate what it is like not to see what you are doing. |
|
Tab through the output to make sure that the reading order is logical. |
|
Credit for the content of the following two sections goes to WebAIM.
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