Pranav wrote me privately to pose an interesting question in response to the
five-step process I described for exposing Alt text for graphics in Word
documents: Using only the keyboard, how does one navigate to an image in a
Word document so that it can be right-clicked?
First, a word of warning. In Word 2000, navigating to a WordArt object appears
to be impossible without the mouse. In other words, WordArt is not accessible.
What a shame! When an author creates a WordArt object, Word automatically
duplicates the text as Alt-text! WordArt, by the way, is a feature that
produces ornately decorated text. WordArt texts are graphical objects that can
be resized, repositioned, stretched, and rotated; however, you must use a
mouse to perform all of these transformations. Sigh.
On the other hand, there are many ways to navigate to pictures in Word
documents:
1. The most reliable way is to search for a graphic. Invoke the "Find" command
(press Ctrl F or choose "Edit menu Find..."). In the "Find what" combo box
field, type the wildcard for a graphic: ^g i.e., caret symbol no-space
lower-case G. The caret is produced by pressing Shift 6 on an American English
keyboard. Do not use an uppercase G. Activate the "Find Next" button. If you
are a JAWS user, you will receive no feedback that a graphic was found. You
will get feedback, however, if a graphic was NOT found! Now, dismiss the Find
dialog box (e.g., activate the "Cancel" button or press Esc.) JAWS will report
that a picture has focus, but not that it is selected. However, the graphic IS
selected, and you can right-click on it, press Shift F10, or press the
Application key.
2. Another reliable, although extremely tedious way to find a graphic is to
hunt one character at a time. This would work will in the short test file I
sent this list the other day, but you may hesitate about using this technique
for a long document! Press Shift right arrow. This will select the character
to the right. If the character is a graphic, it will appear selected to a
sighted user, and JAWS will announce that a picture is selected. If it is not
a graphic, you need to deselect the last character by pressing the right arrow
key. You can then continue hunting by pressing Shift right arrow to test the
next character.
3. There are two additional techniques, both of which use the "Go To" feature.
A caveat for screen reader users: If you want to experiment with this
nightmarish technique, prepare to do a lot of slogging. There are plenty of
bugs in the implementation of Go To, at least in Word 2000. But if you are
itching for a challenge, the two default hotkeys for "Go To" are Ctrl G and
F5. Have fun!!
Of the three techniques, searching for a graphic using ^g seems to be the most
dependable. Remember, this only works for pictures inserted into Word 2000
documents. None of the techniques I outlined in this message will allow you to
select a WordArt object.
Alan
From: Pranav Lal [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Thanks Allen.
In the kind of document you sent, how does one get to one of the images to
right click it?
Here are the five steps:
1. Select the object.
2. Right click on the object, or press Shift F10, or press the Application
key.
3. You have just activated the context menu for the image. Choose "Format
Picture..." from the menu.
4. This will invoke a dialog box with the title "Format Picture." The dialog
box has tabbed pages. Go to the tab titled "Web."
5. The alternative text appears, or can be typed into, an edit field.
-------------------------------------------------------------
See EASI Special October Bonus offer at http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
EASI November courses are:
Barrier-free E-learning, Accessible Internet Multimedia and Business Benefits of Accessible IT Design:
http://easi.cc/workshop.htm
EASI Home Page http://www.rit.edu/~easi
>>> Error in line 8 of EASI.MAILTPL: unknown formatting command <<<
-> ............. <-
|
