Accessibility

PDF Makeover Week 3

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Week 3 (March 21-25): Make remaining PDFs more accessible

Week 3 Goals

  1. Evaluate the accessibility of remaining PDFs.
  2. Identify ways to repair and enhance their accessibility.

Why it matters

PDFs are not innately bad! They just need to have accessibility features added to ensure they serve an inclusive and diverse audience.

Week 3 Assignment

The first two weeks of the event likely addressed the majority of your PDFs. However, you may have a few remaining that need to stay in PDF format to meet a specific need. No problem! PDFs are not innately bad! They just need to have accessibility features added to ensure they serve an inclusive and diverse audience.

Generally, you cannot tell whether a PDF is accessible just by looking at it, though there are a few red flags such as if the text is not selectable in the right order. There are a number of ways to address accessibility in PDFs so we are providing multiple resources based on your particular needs.

Week 3 Assignment

  1. Review your copy of the PDF List Template for identified PDFs that must remain as PDFs. 
  2. Download Exercise files and watch video on PDF remediation that introduces the basics of PDF accessibility and how-to make improvements.
  3. Choose one for more PDFs marked for remediation on your worksheet and begin the remediation process using what you learned in the video above as well the resources available on our Extreme Makeover webpage.
  4. Modify the name of your PDF to identify that it has been made accessible. Example: math_tutorial.pdf to math_tutorial_a11y.pdf
  5. Update your PDF List Google sheet with:
    1. Time you spent on each conversion and/or reason you could not complete the conversion.
    2. Date republished to your website and/or course. 
  6. Optional support:  
    1. Open Training Hours
      1. Monday, March 21 (1:00 - 2:00 pm) Click to join this Zoom Meeting
      2. Wednesday, March 23 (11:30 am - 12:30 pm) Click to join this Zoom Meeting
      3. Thursday, March 24 (2:00 - 4:00pm) Click to join this Zoom Meeting
    2. If you cannot attend during Open Training Hours and need specific assistance or training, please contact Matt Sauthoff at sauthoffm@appstate.edu.

Resources

See Resources for Accessible Documents for detailed instructions on creating accessible PDFs