Hi – Mona Minkara at Northeastern (she gave a presentation to VIBUG not long
ago) gave me this suggestion for a service called 247 Accessible Documents
(https://247accessibledocuments.com/).
Does anyone have any experience with this outfit? I might try out a couple of
test documents with them and see how they do.
-Amy
From: vibug-support-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <vibug-support-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Behalf Of Jeffrey
Sent: Thursday, May 5, 2022 8:32 PM
To: vibug-support@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vibug-support] Re: service for accessibility checking of electronic
documents?
Your problem really bothers me. You have found successful employment, but this
barrier may reduce your performance and there is no technical solution. I made
some phone calls, but I didn't find anything. I know there are transcription
services available over the internet, but I doubt that anyone knows how to use
text tags.
If these documents are being prepared by your co-workers, please ask them to
add a text table of the same information directly below the pie chart.
I do not advise packing a lot of information into a text tag. It may be
difficult to pause a text tag during playback and you may have trouble
recovering the information in a meaningful way.
Jaws has a way to quickly locate graphics in a document, so it shouldn't take
too much time for a sighted person to locate the graphics. They don't have to
scan the entire document.
Jeffrey I. Drucker
61Quint Avenue Unit 1
Allston, MA 02134-2568
Home: 617-782-2474
Email: jeffreyboston@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:jeffreyboston@xxxxxxxxx>
On Thursday, May 5, 2022, 08:10:03 AM EDT, Amy Bower (she/her)
<abower@xxxxxxxx<mailto:abower@xxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Hi All:
Does anyone know if there is a service out there where I could send electronic
documents and they would check them for accessibility? This pertains
particularly to PowerPoint presentations and alt-text on images. In my current
job, there are many of these that I need to review. My employer is pushing
document authors to learn how to use alt-text and make sure they use it on
their presentations, but it’s slow-going and inconsistent. I can’t check myself
because I don’t know what is on the slides to begin with. No one here at WHOI
is qualified or has the time to check all the documents that I’m supposed to
review. What I need is someone to inspect each document, identify where
alt-text is missing or inadequate, and give general instruction back to the
author on how to fix the issues. The automatic Accessibility Checker is
probably not good enough for this purpose, because the problem is not just
making sure alt-text is provided, but making sure it is good description. For
example, sometimes the authors will put in the alt-text “pie chart showing
distribution of assets by department” for example, but they don’t include the
data! What good is that?!
I’m sure my employer would pay for this service, which probably needs to be
provided by a sighted person.
Thanks.
-Amy
