Accessible documentation

One or more of the following techniques are the minimum required to meet Checkpoint 1 from the IBM Documentation Accessibility Checklist. The following techniques are the minimum required to meet this checkpoint:

• Adobe PDF
• HTML
• Microsoft Office
• Syntax diagrams
• Text

Adobe PDF
PDF documents are accessible if they meet the following guidelines:

• Create tagged PDF.
• Provide text alternatives (alt text) for non-text content such as images and charts. If images are pure decoration, they are tagged so they can be ignored by assistive technology (artifacts).
• Provide document structure information to assistive technology. This includes (but is not limited to) defining headings, row and column headers in tables, lists and paragraphs.
• Define correct document reading order.
• Provide document navigation using bookmarks or other navigation methods.
• Create accessible source documents before exporting to PDF. Before exporting to PDF, Microsoft Office documents should follow the guidelines for accessible Microsoft PowerPoint and Word documents.
• Define the language for the document.

Use the latest version of Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader for the best results. The following resources from Adobe provide information on making PDF documents accessible.

• Creating Accessible PDF documents with Adobe Acrobat. This document discusses Acrobat 7, but applies to later versions of Acrobat as well.
• Assessing PDF files for accessibility. This short Flash-based tutorial provides guidance for testing PDF documents.
• Creating accessible PDF files. This short Flash-based tutorial takes you through the steps to create accessible PDF document.

HTML
HTML documents are accessible if they follow the IBM Web Accessibility Checklist to produce accessible HTML.

Microsoft Office documents
See Creating Accessible PowerPoint Documents for detailed tips and techniques for creating accessible presentations. For techniques to create accessible Word documents, see Creating Accessible Microsoft Word Documents.

Syntax diagrams
Syntax diagrams are usually provided as railroad diagrams, but this format is not accessible to someone using a screen reader. An accessible format such as dotted decimal or BNF (Backus-Naur) must be provided in addition to the railroad diagrams.

Text
Text documents are accessible if the following guidelines are followed:

• Do not use ASCII art.
• If graphics have been converted to ASCII text, include text descriptions of illustrations and graphics in the documentation.
• Do not use multi-column layout. For example, avoid using a newspaper column layout which must be read column by column.

Tools

You will need to install the following tools to test this checkpoint:

• A screen reader.
• A Web checking tool for HTML documentation.
• The Adobe Accessibility Checker for PDF documents.

The following techniques are required to verify this checkpoint: