creating accessible documents rmll 2011 aegis
DESCRIPTION
Creating Accessible Documents, DAISY and Braille with OpenOffice.org and LibreOfficeWriter [in English]; Authors: Christophe Strobbe, Vincent Spiewak, Bert FreesRMLL 2011, 9-14 July 2011TRANSCRIPT
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Creating Accessible Documents with LibreOffice / OpenOffice.org Writer
Christophe StrobbeK.U.Leuven, [email protected] Bert Frees, Vincent Spiewak
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Overview
● AEGIS project● Accessibility: short introduction● LibreOffice Writer features● Accessible authoring● ODT Accessibility Checker● Export as DAISY & Braille● Export to PDF● LibreOffice Accessibility Issues
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
The AEGIS Project
● EC-funded project, Sep. 2008-Aug.2012● 20+ partners, including Oracle (Sun),
AOL, RIM, Vodafone Foundation, K.U.Leuven, …
● Access to desktop, RIAs and mobile applications
● Many open-source “prototypes” / products
● http://www.aegis-project.eu/
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Accessibility: Introduction (1)
● Blind users● No pointing device
=> keyboard access● UI & content rendered as Braille and/or
synthetic speech● = sequential access
● Access depends on text alternatives and other metadata exposed through (accessibility) APIs
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Accessibility: Introduction
● Other vision deficiencies:● Colour blindness (red-green) ● Loss of peripheral vision, loss of central
vision, blurred vision, …● Persons who need magnification (even
x32 or x64)
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Accessibility: Introduction
● Hearing-impaired users● If congenitally deaf, native language =
sign language● Captioning for video● Transcripts for audio
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Accessibility: Introduction
● Motor-impaired users● Due to muscular dystrophy, multiple
sclerosis, …● Use of pointing device may be difficult,
even impossible=> keyboard access=> alternative input devices, e.g. eye tracking, head tracking, …
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Accessibility: Introduction
● Dyslexia, learning disabilities, cognitive impairments● Make text easier to read● Use illustrations
● Examples: 15 AEGIS personashttp://www.aegis-project.eu/ > Results > Personas (Creative Commons)
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
LibreOffice Writer Features: 1
● File formats:● OpenDocument Format (ODT)● export to/save as PDF, XHTML,
DocBook, DocX, ...● export to DAISY, Braille
● Export to accessible document requires
accessible source document
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
LibreOffice Writer Features: 2
● Applying styles
● Styles and Formatting panel (F11)
● Navigator (F5)
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Document Structure
● Document title: Title & Subtitle
● Structure: Heading 1, Heading 2, ...
● Find empty headings with Navigator →“Clear formatting” in styles
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Lists
● Toolbar buttons for unordered and numbered lists (or Format Bullets and Numbering)→
● List styles (more fiddly)
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Columns
● Don’t use tables or whitespace (e.g. tabs) to fake columns
● Format -> Columns...
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Visual Design
● Font faces designed for use on screens:● Sans-serif: Verdana, Trebuchet MS ● Serif: Georgia
● Avoid justified text (rivers of whitespace)
● Avoid long spans of text in ALL CAPS or italics
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Images and Non-Text Objects (1)
● Add alternative text: context menu →● Description... Title & Description→● Picture... Options: Alternative (Text →
only) (=Title)
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Images and Non-Text Objects (2)
● OOo 3.2/3.3 & Libo 3.3.1 bug: ● add text alternative after caption and/or
anchor change● Export to (X)HTML: bugs:
● alt attribute value = Description● Title is not exported
● Math & scientific formula● Safest option = replace MathML with
image + description
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Tables (1)
● Don’t use tabs or spaces to fake tables● Menus: Table Insert Table...→ →● For header row: change style from
“Table Contents” to “Table Heading”
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Tables (2)
● Make header row repeat● Disable the option “Allow rows to break
across pages and columns”
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Tables (3)
● Never nest tables inside other tables!● Avoid merged cells● Break up complex tables into simpler
ones● Avoid empty cells => “not applicable” /
“no”/ …● Avoid images inside tables
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Language (1)
● Mark up the default language of a document
● Mark up language changes in the document
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Language (2)
● Export to (X)HTML: default language and languages changes need to be defined again
● Export to PDF: check language in document properties; if necessary use Adobe Acrobat to correct the language, e.g. “en-GB” →English
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Colour and Contrast
● Don’t rely on colour alone to convey information (diagrams!)
● Sufficient contrast between foreground and background information in text, charts and images● Paciello Group Colour
Contrast Analyser
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
ODT Accessibility Checker
● New extension, soon to be released (English, Spanish, Dutch)
● Evaluate accessibility● Errors● Warnings● Repair suggestions● Sometimes
(semi-)automatic repair
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Export as DAISY (1)
● odt2daisy: Export ODT as DAISY 2.02 & 3.0
● OOo Writer 3.0 or higher, or LibreOffice● Uses DAISY Pipeline Lite
● Pipeline uses text-to-speech engines available on user’s OS
● http://odt2daisy.sf.net/
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Export as DAISY (2)
● Export as DAISY XML● Export as Full DAISY
● Multilingual content● Metadata (Title)● Sentence detection● Fix routines
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Emboss / Export as Braille (1)
● odt2braille extension: emboss ODT files/ export ODT files to Braille
● Uses liblouisxml & liblouis for parts of the conversion
● Emboss on limited set of embossers (Interpoint, Index Braille, Braillo)
● http://odt2braille.sf.net/
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Emboss / Export as Braille (2)
● Export to “Braille Formatted files” (.brf; .bra)
● Export to Portable Embosser Format (PEF): embosser-independent; uses XML and Unicode
● Currently only on Windows;Debian package is in progress
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Emboss / Export as Braille (3)
Detailed customisation of Braille output
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Export as PDF
● General tab: check● “Tagged PDF”● “Export Bookmarks”
● Initial View tab: check● “Bookmarks and Page”
● These checkboxes remain checked
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
LibreOffice Accessibility Issues (1)
● Accessible title and description on image disappear when caption is added
● Accessible title and description on image disappear when anchor is change (e.g. to “As character”)
● Extension manager: tabbing out of list of extensions does not work when focus is on non-removable extension
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
LibreOffice Accessibility Issues (2)
● No explicit connection between label and field in extension GUI created through UNO API?
● Default language for presentation / spreadsheet not visible in status bar of Impress / Calc
● No language identification for sections / spans of text in Impress and Calc
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
LibreOffice Accessibility Issues (3)
● Impress PDF export● Text alternatives for images are not preserved● “All of the text on this page lacks a language
specification” (each slide)● “Tab order may be inconsistent with the
structure order” (some slides)● “None of the comments or other types of
annotations on this page are contained in the structure tree” (some slides)
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
LibreOffice Accessibility Issues (4)
● Accessibility on Windows:● Java Accessibility API: poor support in
Windows screen readers● In 2010 IBM donated IAccessible2
implementation to Oracle; integration not complete when Oracle abandoned OpenOffice.org
● Oracle donated OOo to Apache Found.● IAccessible2 maybe in OpenOffice.org
3.4.0 (Apache Foundation)
Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 9-14 July 2011
Questions? Comments?
● Contact:● [email protected]
(April Accessibilité, LibreOffice Accessibility, ...)
● See also ● Accessible Digital Office Document
project: http://adod.idrc.ocad.ca/