|
Electronic information accessibility tips, tricks and trainings. August 2020, Issue XV
 Break out the balloons and cake
On Sept. 1, the state of Minnesota’s digital accessibility and usability standard is 10 years old!
To celebrate, Minnesota IT Services’ (MNIT) Office of Accessibility is holding trainings and panels to help state employees learn more about how far the state has come over the past decade, where we’re headed, and what you can do to incorporate accessibility into your work. Minnesota’s digital accessibility and usability standard has been key to state agencies’ mission of providing information that is available and useful for all.
Panel Events on Sept. 1
Celebrate the adoption of a digital accessibility and usability standard:
- Looking back: Challenges and successes of launching the new standard
- State of Minnesota Chief Inclusion Officer Chris Taylor will interview the Chief Procurement Officer Betsy Hayes and Cook County Management Information Systems Director Rena Rogers. Both Rena and Betsy were instrumental in the development and early successes of the digital accessibility and usability standard.
- Sept. 1, 10-11 a.m. Add the "Looking Back" panel to your calendar.
- Looking forward: How the standard is a key tool to help agencies drive inclusion
- Watch MNIT Commissioner Tarek Tomes interview DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen and DHS Chief of Staff Stacy Twite about how the accessibility standard has impacted their agencies and how they see their agencies using it to create a more inclusive future.
- Sept. 1, 12-1 p.m. Add the "Looking Forward" panel to your calendar.
Training Events on Sept. 9
Digital accessibility coordinators from across state government are leading two trainings for staff to integrate accessibility into their work.
-
Developer training: Dive into web development techniques to ensure you are building websites and applications accessibly, right from the start. Covering semantic HTML, the use of ARIA, user interfaces, and form controls, this virtual presentation will start the conversation to improve digital accessibility.
-
PowerPoint accessibility: You might not be aware that slides you make in everyday work can make it harder for your colleagues to understand the materials. Learn key simple steps you can do to ensure your presentation slides are accessible.
Join your state employees to celebrate how far we’ve come as a state, and to learn how we can do more. We must ensure that our work is usable and accessible for not only our colleagues, but for all of Minnesota.
Helpful feature: the navigation pane
The navigation pane in Microsoft Word provides an at-a-glance view of your document headings. It appears in outline format making it easy to see if you've selected the logical heading style for your header.
 The navigation pane also makes it easy to navigate within the document and change the order of sections in your document.
To open the Navigation pane:
- Select the View tab.
- Check the Navigation Pane check box in the Show group (Alt+W+K).
Inside the Navigation pane, you'll find a search box and three tabs across the top. The tabs are:
Headings: Lists all headings in order.
- Use the arrows in the pane to open and close subheadings.
- Select a heading to go directly there without scrolling through the document.
- Move an entire section of your document. Click and drag the heading to the desired location.
Pages: Shows thumbnails of all pages.
Results: Shows word search results. Select the desired result to jump to that spot in the document.
Tagging your PDF map
Have a map in your Adobe Acrobat PDF document? Here's how to tag it.
- Open Tools > Accessibility > Reading Order (or Touch Up Reading Order, or TURO).
- Treat the entire map and legend as one figure. Select it by dragging the cursor around it all, then choose "Figure" from the Reading Order panel.
- Select the caption or title, then choose Text/Paragraph (or a Heading). Note: design your pages so this text is outside the map area and easy to select.
- For items you want ignored, select and choose “Background.”
Tips
- If you mess up a page or a document comes to you with messy tagging, select “Clear Page Structure” and then follow the above steps.
- If you need to select things that overlap, select and tag the larger item first, then the smaller.
- If want to deselect something within another item, hold down the Control key while selecting.
 Find additional tips on the Map Accessibility page of the Office of Accessibility website.
Accessibility Resources
Electronic Information Accessibility Intranet Page
Go-to location for resources, guidance and information.
Designees
Need assistance? Contact your division electronic information accessibility designee.
|
