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Easy Accessibility: Using Microsoft Word Templates to Save Time and Effort

taught by: Carmen Matthews

Session Summary:

In this session, I’ll share the approach the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) has taken to encourage the use of Word templates in the agency.

We’ll look at the templates TWC is using. Then you’ll create your own Word template using accessibility best practices. Next, we’ll take your fledgling template for a test drive: creating a new document from your template and applying your template to an existing document.

You’ll walk away with knowledge of what is working for us at TWC, a copy of the templates our agency uses, and a fresh template for your workplace.

Description:

Do you and your coworkers struggle with making Microsoft Word documents accessible? Are you spending too much time editing and designing each document to fit accessibility needs? Let me help! The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) had those problems, too, and we improved our processes using Word templates. Templates are collections of customized styles that can be used when creating Word documents. They are typically used for documents that are created frequently, such as letters and reports. They save time and energy because there’s no need to repeatedly format elements in each new document. In this session, I’ll share the approach TWC has taken to encourage the use of templates in the agency. We’ll look at the templates TWC is using. Then you’ll create your own Word template using accessibility best practices. Next, we’ll take your fledgling template for a test drive: creating a new document from your template and applying your template to an existing document. You’ll walk away with knowledge of what is working for us at TWC, a copy of the templates our agency uses, and a fresh template for your workplace.

Practical Skills:

Learn to design and apply templates to make accessible Microsoft Word documents in no time.

Presentation Materials:

PDF Document Remediation · Workshop (September 17, 2020)

This class will start with the very basics of document remediation. We will work our way from start to finish to complete a full WCAG compliant document. We will cover: Language Specification/Page Properties, Common Tags, Alt-text, Reading Order, Headings, Hyperlinks, Lists, Tables, and Fillable Forms.

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