Creating accessible PDFs from Word and Acrobat (1 day)
About the course
Creating accessible PDFs is about so much more than simply tagging your documents. That's why this course also includes in-depth coverage of a wide range of accessible content creation techniques. Employing these techniques will not only ensure that you produce the most accessible documents possible, but will also save you time, both in the content creation stage itself and in later editing.
Client testimonials for this course
Course outline
Session 1 — Word (2003, 2007 or 2010)
Creating accessible PDFs from Microsoft Word. Topics include:
- Understanding Word version differences, bugs and workarounds
- Working with templates
- Applying structure with headings, lists, links, tables of contents …
- Images, alt text, and handling charts effectively
- Designing data tables for accessibility and usability
- Colour contrast issues and understanding colour blindness
- Text formatting issues
- Avoiding common design problems
- Meta data
- Creating a tagged, bookmarked PDF
Session 2 — Acrobat Professional (8, 9 or X)
Topics include:
- Workflow tips
- Understanding Acrobat PDF accessibility tools
- Editing PDFs for multiple platforms and devices
- Applying structure with headings, lists, links …
- Images and alt text
- Footnotes, abbreviations/acronyms, URLs and the language of parts
- Data tables: from simple to complex
- Tables of contents and bookmarks
- Scanned documents
- Document management
- How and why to avoid opening PDFs in a browser
Accessible PDF forms
Please note that a brief overview of PDF forms can be included in a one-day course. However, as the basics of PDF forms accessibility take a minimum of half a day to cover properly, this topic is more often included in our two-day advanced course, or as a dedicated one-day creating accessible PDF forms course.
Client testimonials
Paul Bennun, The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association
"The accessible PDF course was a real eye-opener. The practical advice given will be a great help in keeping all our documentation accessible … An excellent course. Eloquently delivered by a presenter capable of catering for an audience of varying knowledge levels. A definite thumbs up."
Jan Stebbings, Surrey Heath Borough Council
"The course covered many aspects which we had not previously thought about. (It) has taught us to make our documents more accessible to everyone and not disadvantage users with disabilities. We were really impressed with the level of expertise and the support we have received from Ted since the course was completed.
Pete Torkington, The Macular Disease Society
"The Macular Disease Society supports people who have lost central vision and hence find reading very difficult or impossible. We wanted to make sure that as we make information available in PDF format that it would be easy to access. PWS's training and inclusive follow-up consultancy has given us a huge head start. We now know how to create accessible PDFs, what to avoid, how to consider contrast requirements, ensure that our PDFs can be read by screen readers and how to give them structure so people can quickly navigate to the information they want. PWS's expertise and experience has saved us from making expensive and time consuming mistakes as well as guiding us to producing great PDFs that everyone can use."
Further information
For further information please call us on 01932 355 222 or 07918 952 874.
