From the file in Microsoft Word format at the web address
http://microsoft.com/office/2000/Office/Documents/Accssblt.doc
Microsoft Office 2000 Accessibility
White Paper
Published: October 1998
Table of Contents
Introduction1
What is Active Accessibility?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .2
Quick Reference to Features that are built into Office . . . . .
. . . . . . .3
Keyboard Features for Those with Mobility Impairments . . . . . .
. . . . . 3
Mouse Features for Those with Mobility Impairments. . . . . . . .
. . . . . 4
General Features for Those with Mobility Impairments. . . . . . .
. . . . . 4
Features for People Who Are Blind or Have Low Vision. . . . . . .
. . . . . 5
Features for Those who are Deaf or have Hearing Impairments . . .
. . . . . 6
Features for Those with Cognitive Disorders . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . 6
Detailed Feature Descriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .7
Features Built into Office. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . 7
Additional Support for Third-Party Accessibility Aids . . . . . .
. . . . .15
Microsoft Active Accessibility in Access 2000 forms . . . . . . .
. . . . .15
User Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 16
Usability Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . .16
Beta Testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . .17
Industry Conferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . .17
Microsoft Accessibility Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . .17
Microsoft Office 2000 Accessibility
White Paper
Published: October 1998
For the latest information, please see
http://www.microsoft.com/office/
Introduction
Microsoft is dedicated to removing barriers and delivering
additional capabilities that increase the usability of Microsoft
Office for all people, including those with disabilities.
According to government figures, one person in five has some
functional limitation, and 8 percent of all users on the Web have
disabilities. In the U.S. alone there are more than 30 million
people with disabilities who can be affected by the design of
computer software.
People with disabilities are present in all trades and
professions. Among them are computer programmers, engineers,
accountants, teachers, and researchers, and their disabilities
vary significantly. As computers become central to more tasks,
increasing numbers of these individuals are using computers in
their work and educational lives.
Anyone can gain a permanent or temporary disability through
injury, illness, or aging. Most people experience a period of
disability if they live long enough: 25 percent by the age of 55,
increasing quickly thereafter. In addition, many people have had
to deal with the temporary physical limitation of having an arm
in a cast, or have experienced pain from typing or using a mouse
for extended periods.
Furthermore, circumstances can create problems similar to those
faced by people with disabilities. If you are working somewhere
noisy such as on a plane or in a workshop, you are, in effect,
temporarily hard of hearing. If you have a broken mouse, you rely
on the keyboard just as someone who is blind or quadriplegic
might. Anyone can experience conditions that impose the kind of
limitations that mimic a disability, and anyone can be forced to
rely on the same sorts of solutions.
Previous versions of Office have included features to enhance its
accessibility, making the software available to a wider range of
users, including those with disabilities. With Office 2000,
Microsoft remains dedicated to increasing support for the
disabled community. Specifically, Office 2000 will increase
accessibility support in two key areas:
Features that are built into Office 2000
Enhancements for third-party developers of accessibility
hardware and software
The Office 2000 development team worked directly with users who
have disabilities to find features that would make the software
more accessible. Based on the feedback gathered, Office 2000
includes improved accessibility features that fall into the
following key areas:
Improved high contrast support
Improved focus support
Improved keyboard support
Improved support for Microsoft Active Accessibility
Improvements to the native object model
Increased ease of use for everyone
The Office development team is also working with an increasing
number of independent software vendors (ISVs) to ensure that
Office is easy to access via third-party devices that assist
people with disabilities. In building Office 2000, the Microsoft
team worked closely with third-party developers early in the
development cycle to receive feedback on Office prior to release.
By receiving early versions of the product, these ISVs will have
the ability to adapt their own products to a ship schedule
similar to that of Office. In this way, there is a reduction in
the delay between the release of Office and the availability of
needed accessibility aids. The Office development team has also
worked to make sure that existing accessibility aids will still
work with new releases of Office.
Microsoft has created a strategic initiative known as Microsoft
Active Accessibility, to continue accessibility improvement.
Office supports Microsoft Active Accessibility in a number of
critical areas, and future versions of Office will expand their
support for Microsoft Active Accessibility as the standard
evolves to better handle complex documents.
This paper describes the accessibility features that are new and
improved in Office 2000. It also discusses important features
that were initially provided in past versions of Office, but
continue to make Office 2000 more accessible. While the features
described in this paper represent progress in making Office more
accessible to a wider range of users, there is still much work to
be done. Microsoft is committed to building upon this foundation
as we listen to customers and move forward with future
generations of Office.
What is Active Accessibility?
Microsoft Active Accessibility is a strategic initiative to
improve the accessibility of our own applications and computer
software in general. It consists of a new suite of technologies
that let applications actively cooperate with accessibility aids,
providing information about what they are doing and about the
contents of the screen. It also lets utilities automate control
of the applications.
Microsoft Active Accessibility is based on OLE and the Component
Object Model (COM), a standard for how software components work
together. These were designed to be able to handle new roles, and
we have now applied them to accessibility.
Using these foundations, an application creates "objects"
representing items on the screen with which the user can
interact. These objects provide the specific information needed
by accessibility aids, such as the name and type of the object,
and where it is located on the screen. Most importantly, this
information is standardized across applications, so an
accessibility aid should be able to work with any application
that supports Active Accessibility.
Office 97 was the first major adopter of the Active Accessibility
standard. With Office 2000 we build on this commitment and
provide even more information. Office 2000 provides Active
Accessibility information to most user interface elements,
including menus, toolbars, dialog boxes and forms.
For more information on Microsoft Active Accessibility, please
see http://www.microsoft.com/enable/.
Quick Reference to Features that are built into Office
Below is a quick guide to the Accessibility features available in
Office 2000.
Keyboard Features for Those with Mobility Impairments
Feature
Description
New
Keyboard Access to OfficeArt
Users can now take advantage of OfficeArt drawing tools via the
keyboard to create more visually effective documents. Users can
create 3-D effects, shadows, multi-colored fills, textures, and
curves, without having to use a mouse.
New
Keyboard Support for Microsoft Access Relationships
Access 2000 provides the ability to create and manage
relationships through the keyboard. This was previously only
available via drag and drop.
New
Search Support in Clip Gallery
Improved natural language query and a new Find Similar feature
increase access to Clip Gallery with reduced keystrokes.
Improved
Keyboard Support for Clip Gallery
All features in Clip Gallery can be accessed via the keyboard.
Improved
Keyboard Access to Help
With Office 2000, users can choose to turn off the graphical
Office Assistant and still have access to natural language help
through the keyboard.
Mouse Features for Those with Mobility Impairments
Feature
Description
Large Icons
Increased icon size gives users with mobility impairments an
increased range for selecting with their mouse.
Control Over Scrolling Rate
Support for the Microsoft IntelliMouse pointing device allows
users to adjust their scrolling rate easily.
General Features for Those with Mobility Impairments
Feature
Description
New
File View
Office 2000 introduces a new file view in which users can view
50% more files in the Open dialog with less visual clutter. A
shortcut menu provided in this dialog box, which includes a
History folder and My Documents folder, gives users with
disabilities access to documents with fewer keystrokes.
Personalized Menus
Office 2000 menus automatically adapt, so that when first opened,
a menu only shows those commands that are used frequently. This
reduces the keystrokes that are necessary to access frequently
used menu items.
New
HTML Help
Office 2000 provides HTML Help that makes navigation through
topics possible with fewer keystrokes or mouse clicks.
Improved
Grammar Checking
This feature has been improved to better recognize grammatical
errors and be more accessible through the keyboard and mouse.
Improved
Spelling Aids
Context information in the Word spell checker reduces the
frequency with which users have to switch between the document
and the feature. Users can also easily skip between misspelled
words by hitting ALT+F7. These features reduce the number of
motions necessary to spell check a document.
Improved
Personalized Toolbars
Users can choose which icons appear on customized toolbars and
thus reduce the physical steps that are necessary to use a
feature.
Improved
AutoCorrect
This feature allows users to replace multiple words, fix multiple
word spelling and grammatical errors, and add words to the
AutoCorrect list. This feature can be accessed through minimal
interaction with the mouse or keyboard.
Feature
Description
Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts give users with mobility impairments an
alternative to using the mouse for accessing various features.
This also reduces the number of steps necessary to take advantage
of various features.
Personalized Keyboard Shortcuts
Office allows users to assign their own keyboard shortcuts to
commands they frequently use, which allows users with mobility
impairments to reduce the amount of physical interaction that is
necessary to access frequently used commands.
AutoComplete
This feature provides users with suggestions on how to complete
their text based on what they are typing. Because Office makes
intelligent guesses at what users want to type, this allows users
to type common words with fewer keystrokes.
Features for People Who Are Blind or Have Low Vision
Feature
Description
New
Keyboard Access to OfficeArt
Keyboard support for OfficeArt drawing tools makes them more
accessible to blind users.
New
Keyboard Support for Access Relationships
Access 2000 provides the ability to create and manage
relationships through the keyboard, which increases access for
blind users.
New
Search Support in Clip Gallery
Improved natural language query and new Find Similar feature
increase access to Clip Gallery with a reduced number of
keystrokes.
New
Keyboard Access to Help
Because users have the option to turn off the Office Assistant,
natural language Help can be accessed directly. This improves
access to natural language Help with accessibility aids that are
not compatible with the graphically oriented Office Assistant.
New
HTML Help
In Office 2000 users can use hyperlinks to move through Help,
which makes it more navigable for those who are blind or have low
vision.
New
Clip Gallery screen-reader support
In Office 2000, the Clip Gallery allows screen readers to read
ToolTips, clip captions and other text.
Improved
Keyboard Support for Clip Gallery
Because features in Clip Gallery can be accessed via the
keyboard, they are more accessible to users who are blind or have
low vision.
Improved
Large clip previews in Clip Gallery
Increased magnification of large clip previews makes clip viewing
easier for those with low vision.
Feature
Description
Improved
Customizable Views in Outlook
Outlook 2000 messaging and collaboration client offers
customizable views, which can be easily changed to increase the
performance of accessibility aids.
Improved
High Contrast Mode
This feature allows users with low vision to see distinctions
more easily, including ToolTips.
Improved
Spelling Aids
Because Spell Check includes context information, the need to
switch back and forth to the document is reduced, which makes
this feature easier to use for those who are blind or have low
vision.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts provide an alternative to using the mouse for
blind and low vision users.
Control Over Scrolling Rate
Support for the Microsoft IntelliMouse allows users to adjust
their scrolling rate easily.
Large Font Mode
This feature allows users with low vision to increase the size of
the text.
Zoom
Zoom capability to 500% in Word 2000, and 400% in PowerPoint
presentation graphics program and Excel 2000 makes documents more
visible.
Large Icons
Increased icon size makes it easier for low vision users to view
the icons.
Keyboard Support for Table Drawing
Users can draw tables by using the keyboard rather than relying
on the mouse.
Multi-Modal Cues
Office uses sounds in addition to visual indicators to notify
users that certain actions have taken place.
Formatting marks
Users can choose to display symbols, such as spaces and tabs, to
represent formatting. Screen readers can be customized to
recognize these symbols.
Features for Those who are Deaf or have Hearing Impairments
Feature
Description
Multi-modal Cues
Allows those who are deaf to "see" an audible action.
Features for Those with Cognitive Disorders
Feature
Description
New
Personalized Menus
The number of icons and options on the Office 2000 user interface
has been reduced to only those that are used most often, and
menus are shorter. Although more features are available in Office
2000, the user interface is clearer and easier to navigate.
Improved
Grammar Checker
The Word 2000 grammar checker has been improved to reduce the
number of correction flags that the user will encounter and to
cut down on the number of flags with no suggested resolution.
Improved
Spelling Aids
The Word 2000 Spell Checker contains many new words that will
assist disabled users and reduce the number of correction flags
that they will encounter.
Improved
AutoCorrect
In Word 2000, AutoCorrect has been improved to automatically make
obvious corrections to misspelled words as they are typed, rather
than requiring users to select from a list.
Detailed Feature Descriptions
Features Built into Office
Office 2000 provides many accessibility features that are built
right into the Office suite. These features are available to all
users, without the need for additional aids, due to the
capabilities of the operating system as well as features that are
a part of Office. Below is a quick description of each of the
features.
Keyboard Access to OfficeArt
In Office 2000, users can now take advantage of OfficeArt drawing
tools via the keyboard to create more visually effective
documents. Previously, OfficeArt was only accessible via the
mouse. Through the keyboard, users can now create 3-D effects,
shadows, multi-colored fills and textures, and use all the
predefined AutoShapes. For more information, please read the
online Help by searching on OfficeArt keyboard shortcuts.
Keyboard Support for Access Relationships
Microsoft Access 2000 now provides the ability to create and
manage relationships through the keyboard. This was previously
only available using the mouse. Users who have either mobility
impairments or visual impairments will now find it much easier to
create relationships among the data stored in an Access database.
To use this feature in Access 2000, follow these steps:
1.From the Tools menu, choose Relationships.
2. From the Relationships menu, choose Edit Relationships.
3. Use the Table/Query pull-down menus to choose the relevant
relationship.
4. Press TAB to highlight the checkboxes for editing the
relationship.
5. Press SPACEBAR to choose the checkboxes.
6. Press TAB to highlight buttons for Join Properties and
creating a new Relationship.
7. Press TAB to highlight the OK button.
8. Press ENTER to close the Edit Relationships dialog box.
Search Support in Clip Gallery
Clip Gallery uses natural language query to search for clips.
This allows users to use everyday language in the search process
and allows them to take advantage of Spell Checker, AutoCorrect,
and AutoComplete. Also, the new Find Similar feature can search
by artistic style, color and shape or keyword. This feature
allows those with mobility impairments to search with reduced
keystrokes.
Keyboard Support for Clip Gallery
All Clip Gallery features can now be accessed via the keyboard.
Please see Clip Gallery Help for a list of keyboard shortcuts.
Keyboard Access to Help
Office 2000 extends the natural language technology, which was
originally available through the Office 95 Help dialog and then
only available through the Office 97 animated Office Assistant,
by now making it available through both. This is important for
users who want to ask questions in everyday language but cannot
access the graphical interface of the Office Assistant. To access
the Office Assistant or Help pane, press F1. To switch from using
the Office Assistant to the Help pane:
1.Press F1 to bring up the Office Assistant.
2. Press ALT+O to open the Options dialog.
3. Press ALT+U to toggle the Assistant off and on.
The Office Assistant may easily be turned on again by selecting
Show the Office Assistant from the Help menu.
Large icons
Increased icon size is easier to view and provides
mobility-impaired users with an increased hit range for selecting
with their mouse. Large icons are available in all Office 2000
applications by following these steps:
1.From the Tools menu, choose Customize.
2. Press ALT+O to display the Options tab.
3. Move to Large Icon checkbox and press SPACEBAR to deselect.
4. Press ENTER to close the Customize dialog box.
Control Over Scrolling Rate
Office 2000 supports the Microsoft IntelliMouse, which allows
users to easily adjust their scrolling rate by using a wheel
located on top of the mouse. This feature allows users with
mobility impairments to control the scrolling directly through
the mouse rather than using the scroll bar in the application,
which reduces the interaction necessary to view a document. Users
with low vision will also benefit from this feature because it
allows them to more easily speed up or slow down the scrolling
rate depending on their needs.
File View
Office 2000 introduces a new File view that increases access to
files through the Open dialog and provides a shortcut menu that
includes features such as a History folder, which contains links
to the last 20 to 50 documents on which users have worked, as
well as a My Documents folder, which provides quick access to
frequently used files. This reduces the number of keystrokes that
are necessary for those with mobility impairments to access their
documents.
Personalized Menus
Office 2000 will automatically adapt to the manner in which it is
used. This allows users with disabilities to focus on just those
features that they need and use. When users first start Office,
the application menus will contain those commands that are used
95 percent of the time, while infrequently used commands do not
immediately clutter the menu. As users access menu commands, the
commands are promoted and displayed higher on the list, while
unused menu commands are demoted and not displayed on the list.
After a period of usage, menus will display the commands used
most often and hide the ones that are rarely or never used. At
the bottom of each menu is a button that expands the menu to the
full selection of choices. When users want to explore new
features, they can quickly expand the menus to find them. In the
meantime, they are shown only those features that they frequently
use, greatly simplifying the interface. Because Office 2000
offers a user interface streamlined to the way a user works,
those with mobility impairments require less interaction with
Office 2000 to accomplish their tasks, and screen readers
function better with less screen clutter for those users who are
blind or have low-vision. This feature will also help users with
cognitive disorders by only showing them the features that they
use frequently. This feature can be turned on and off through the
following steps:
1.From the Tools menu, choose Customize.
2. On the Options tab, press TAB to highlight the Menus Show
Recently Used Commands First checkbox.
3. Press the SPACEBAR to check or un-check this checkbox.
4. Press TAB to highlight the Close button.
5. Press ENTER to close the Customize dialog box.
HTML Help
Users can customize their view of Help in Office by using the
Microsoft Internet Explorer accessibility options, which give
them full control over formatting such as font styles, sizes, and
colors. They can also turn off the display of images in lieu of
text and can disable animations. Users will also benefit from
being able to navigate in the same fashion through the Help
topics as they do within Internet Explorer. To enable these
accessibility features while in Internet Explorer:
1.From the View menu, choose Internet Options.
2. Press the Accessibility button.
3. Press the DOWN ARROW to move the focus to the relevant
Formatting checkboxes.
4. Press the SPACEBAR to put a check in the checkbox.
5. Press TAB to move to the User Style Sheet section.
6. Press ENTER to close the Accessibility dialog box.
Grammar Checker
This feature proofreads documents for grammatical errors as users
type in Word 2000. When Word 2000 detects a grammar error, it
will highlight the text with a wavy underline. This feature can
be accessed either through the Spell Checker dialog, by right
clicking flagged text with the mouse or by pressing SHIFT+F10 on
the keyboard. A Context menu with suggestions for the words that
you type will be displayed. In addition, the natural language
technology in Microsoft Office 2000 allows users to reduce time
by flagging mistakes more accurately and providing better
suggestions. Blind or low vision users may prefer to reduce
screen clutter by turning this off. This can be accomplished
through the following steps:
1.From the Tools menu, choose Options, and then select the
Spelling & Grammar tab.
2. Press the DOWN ARROW to highlight the Check Grammar as you
Type check box.
3. Press the SPACEBAR to put a check in the checkbox.
Spelling Aids
Spell Check includes context information in the Spell Checker
dialog in Word. This makes Word documents more accessible because
users will not have to skip back and forth between the document
and dialog. It will also reduce the amount of typing or accuracy
that is required. Users can also easily skip between misspelled
words in a document by hitting ALT+F7.
Personalized Toolbars
Many users want to be able to have multiple toolbars open at one
time. However, this reduces the document area that they can read
because the toolbars take up so much room. It also increases
screen clutter. Personal Toolbars allow for multiple toolbars to
be stored in a single row on screen. By sliding this row in
either direction, a user can expose different icons. Also,
Toolbars can be customized through the Toolbar Customization
dialog box. This dialog box can be found through the following
steps:
1.From the Tools menu, choose Customize.
2. Press ALT+O to highlight the Options tab.
3. Highlight the Standard and Formatting Toolbars Share One Row
checkbox and press the SPACEBAR to check or un-check this
checkbox.
4. Press the Close button to close the Customize dialog box.
AutoCorrect
AutoCorrect fixes common misspellings and grammar mistakes as the
user types. For example, AutoCorrect will turn hte into the
and their are into there are. Users can be notified with a
sound when a correction or replacement is made, which is useful
for blind or low-vision users. To add or delete a replacement
term from the list, follow these steps:
1.From the Tools menu, choose AutoCorrect.
2. Choose the AutoCorrect tab.
3. Enter text that you want to add or Press the UP and DOWN
ARROWS to find text in the list.
4. Press TAB to highlight the Add or Remove button.
5. Press Add or Remove to change the list.
6. Press ENTER to close the AutoCorrect tab.
7. Press ENTER to close the AutoCorrect dialog box.
To turn this feature on or off, follow these steps:
1.From the Tools menu, choose AutoCorrect.
2. Press the SPACEBAR to check or un-check the checkbox for the
Replace Text as you Type check box.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts give users who are blind, have low vision or
are mobility-impaired an alternative to using the mouse for
accessing various features as well as using menus and toolbars.
For example, CTRL+I quickly and easily turns fonts into italics,
and ALT+I selects the Insert menu. For an overview of keyboard
shortcuts, including a list of those most commonly used, search
for Keyboard Shortcuts in the Help Answer Wizard. To display the
keyboard shortcuts on the menus and on ToolTips:
1.From the Tools menu, choose Customize.
2. Press ALT+O to highlight the Options tab.
3. Press TAB to highlight the Show ScreenTips on Toolbars
checkbox.
4. Press SPACEBAR to put a check in the Show Shortcut Keys
checkbox.
5. Press Highlight the Close button and press ENTER to close
the Customize dialog box.
Personalized Keyboard Shortcuts
Office allows users to assign their own keyboard shortcuts to
commands they frequently use. This is a helpful feature for users
with disabilities who want to use the keyboard rather than the
mouse and who want to streamline the interaction with Office that
is necessary to accomplish a task. The following steps will allow
a user to assign a keyboard shortcut to a command:
1.From the Tools menu, choose Customize.
2. Press ALT+K to open the Customize Keyboard dialog box.
3. Press TAB to highlight the Categories box and use the UP or
DOWN ARROWS to highlight the category that contains the command
or other items you are interested in.
In the box to the right (Commands List box), select the name of
the command or other item to which you want to assign a keyboard
shortcut. Any shortcut keys that are currently assigned appear in
the Current Keys box.
4. In the Press New Shortcut Key box, type the shortcut key
combination you want to assign.
5. Press TAB to highlight the Assign button.
6. Press ENTER to close the Customize Keyboard dialog box.
7. Press TAB until the Save Changes In box is highlighted, use
the UP or DOWN ARROW to highlight the current document name or
template in which you want to save the shortcut key changes.
AutoComplete
This feature provides users with suggestions for how to complete
their text, based on what they are typing. This allows users to
type common words with fewer keystrokes since Office makes an
intelligent guess at the word, based on the first few letters.
Users can add words or phrases that they often use. To view the
list of AutoComplete words and phrases:
1.From the Format menu, choose AutoFormat.
2. Use TAB to highlight the Options button.
3. Choose the AutoText tab.
4. Enter text that you want to add or remove by pressing the UP
and DOWN ARROWS to find text in the list.
5. Press Tab to highlight the Add or Remove button.
6. Press Add or Remove to change the list.
7. Press ENTER to close the AutoText tab.
8. Press ENTER to close the AutoFormat dialog box.
To turn this feature on or off, follow these steps:
1.From the Insert menu, point to AutoText, and then choose
AutoText.
2. Press the SPACEBAR to put a check in the checkbox for the
Show AutoComplete tip for AutoText and Dates check box.
Clip Gallery Screen Reader Support
Clip Gallery 5.0 now allows screen readers to read ToolTips, clip
captions, and other text that has focus. Clip Gallery uses a
natural language query to search for clips, and Spell Check for
the query can be read by screen readers. However, not all text
may be read automatically. Some screen readers have options that
have to be turned on.
Large clip previews in Clip Gallery
Office 2000 increases magnification of large clip previews, which
makes clip viewing easier for those with low vision.
Customizable Views in Outlook
Outlook 2000 offers extremely customizable views, which can be
changed based on a users preference. For example, blind users
might appreciate selecting the Text Only views, which are easier
to read through a screen reader than the graphical views. To
display a text-based only view of the calendar, follow these
steps when in the Calendar:
1.From the View menu, choose Current View.
2. Press the DOWN ARROW to get to Active Appointments.
3. Press ENTER to display the text-based Active Appointments
view of the calendar.
Fields such as Recurrence Pattern, Start Date, End Date can be
added, deleted or arranged in a customized order. To change the
individual fields shown in this view:
1.From the View menu, choose Current View and point to Customize
Current View.
2. Press ENTER to display the View Summary dialog box.
3. Press TAB to highlight the Fields button.
4. Press ENTER to display the Show Fields dialog box.
5. Press TAB to highlight the Add and Remove buttons.
6. Use the UP and DOWN ARROWS to move through the Fields lists.
7. Press TAB to highlight the OK button.
8. Press ENTER to close the Show Fields and View Summary dialog
boxes.
Large Font Mode
Office 2000 includes support for large fonts. These fonts are
available when a user selects High Contrast mode, or can be set
independently. Through the Microsoft Windows operating system
control panel, users can select pre-set font sizes or choose
customized font sizes. Larger fonts increase the accessibility of
Office for low vision users.
1.On the Windows Start menu, point to Settings.
2. Select Control Panel.
3. Select the Display icon.
4. Select the Settings tab.
5. Press TAB to highlight the Advanced button.
6. Press ENTER to view the dialog box.
7. Select Large Fonts or Other from the pull-down menu.
Press TAB to highlight the OK button.
9. Press ENTER to close the dialog box.
High Contrast Support
High Contrast support has been improved in all Office
applications. This allows users to choose a color scheme that
works better for them and enables users with low vision to more
easily distinguish items on the screen. For example, in Access
Datasheet view, users may choose to view the Datasheet in black
and white for easier reading. In addition, PowerPoint 2000
presentation graphics program allows users to work within Slide
view with their choice of either the high contrast colors or true
presentation colors. Users of PowerPoint can quickly switch back
and forth between views by toggling the High Contrast Black and
White option on the View menu. These users may choose to edit
documents in the High Contrast mode, which is easiest for low
vision users, and later fine-tune the colors for their
presentation in the traditional View style. To enable the High
Contrast mode, users can press the LEFT ALT+LEFT
SHIFT+PRINTSCREEN keys or go to the Accessibility Options icon in
the Windows Control Panel through the following steps:
1.On the Windows Start menu, point to Settings.
2. Select Control Panel.
3. Select the Accessibility Options icon.
4. Select the Display tab.
5. Press the SPACEBAR to put a check in the Use High Contrast
Mode checkbox.
6. Press TAB to highlight the OK button.
7. Press ENTER to close the Accessibilities Properties dialog
box.
Zoom
Word 2000 has Zoom capability to 500%. PowerPoint 2000 and Excel
2000 have Zoom capability to 400%. This makes viewing the
document much easier for low vision users. Users can access this
feature via the toolbar or via the keyboard with the following
steps:
1.From the View menu, choose Zoom.
2. Use the UP and DOWN ARROWS to move through the Zoom To list
or press TAB to move into the Percent control and manually enter
a percentage.
3. Press TAB to highlight the OK button.
4. Press ENTER to close the Zoom dialog box.
Multi-Modal Cues
Office 2000 uses sounds and visuals in many places to indicate
actions to the user. For example, when text is deleted, or an
automatic correction is made, a sound is generated. This can be
useful for blind or low vision users. For deaf users, Office also
has custom cursors that can visually indicate actions such as
when a file is being printed or when e-mail arrives. The
following steps will turn this feature on or off:
1.From the Tools menu, choose Options.
2. Select the General tab.
3. Use the UP and DOWN ARROWS to move through the list and
highlight the Provide Feedback with Sound and/or Provide Feedback
with Animation checkbox.
4. Press the SPACEBAR to place or remove a check in this
checkbox.
5. Use TAB to highlight the OK button.
6. Press OK to close the Options dialog box.
Formatting Marks
Office 2000 allows users to turn on symbols that will represent
the formatting in a document, such as spaces and tabs. Screen
readers can be customized to recognize these symbols and help
those users who are blind or have low vision to navigate through
documents. To show these symbols, follow these steps:
1.From the Tools menu, choose Options.
2. Select the View tab.
3. Press TAB to highlight the checkboxes in the Formatting
Marks section.
4. Press the SPACEBAR to place or remove checks in the relevant
checkboxes.
5. Use TAB to highlight the OK button.
6. Press OK to close the Options dialog box.
Keyboard Support for Table Drawing
In addition to creating tables through the options on the Table
menu, Office 2000 allows users to draw tables with the mouse.
However, Office 2000 also allows users to create tables by typing
out their dimensions on the keyboard, reducing dependency on the
mouse for this feature. For example, to create a table with one
row and two columns, a user would type +------+------+. SHIFT+F10
can then be used to format the table.
Improved Documentation on Accessibility
Users may query the Answer Wizard (available through the Office
Assistant or the Answer Tab Wizard) or the Index on
accessibility for a full list of Office Accessibility features.
Office 2000 is dedicated to better documentation for all users,
but there is also a new emphasis on making sure that
accessibility issues are addressed.
Additional Support for Third-Party Accessibility Aids
Third-party accessibility aids such as screen readers for the
blind and voice-input utilities increase access to Microsoft
Office. As a key goal, Office is extremely dedicated to ensuring
the success of these third-party developers who serve the
disabled community. The Office team has implemented a variety of
programs to communicate with this group about information on new
versions of Microsoft products more than six months before the
product ships. We also provide guidance for implementing new
technologies, and allow third-party developers to do early
testing of their existing products on the Office code in order to
troubleshoot issues early and shorten the time to market for
these third-party devices.
Although much work remains to improve support for these
third-party accessibility aids, Office continues to support the
third-party developers who build these aids with improvements to
the Microsoft Active Accessibility implementation and by
providing better native object model information. This ultimately
has an impact on the end users experience. For example, it
allows accessibility aids such as screen readers to give the user
complete information about the displayed document. In the past,
screen readers for the blind would be able to read the text on
the screen, but would not have contextual information. The
improvement means that blind users can now recognize the
differences between a space character, a tab, an indent and the
blank space between paragraphs.
The following are just a few of the improvements that third
parties will be able to capitalize on through the accessibility
aids.
Microsoft Active Accessibility in Access 2000 forms
Office 2000 has integrated Microsoft Active Accessibility into
the Access Forms object so that a screen reader can access
controls on the Form, making it possible for someone to perform
data entry with a screen reader utility.
Improved Support for Tracking the Focus of Office Applications
Office has improved support for accessibility aids ability to
track the focus within Office applications as the user selects
various windows. This is known as the System Caret and helps
accessibility aids identify where a user is working within a
document. The kinds of aids that benefit the most from the system
caret work are screen magnifiers. They can use this knowledge of
where the focus is in a document to automatically center their
view on where the user is selecting or typing. It also helps
screen readers by making it easier to estimate how close they are
to the end of a line, paragraph, page or cell. The screen reader
can then use this knowledge to determine what and how much to
read out. For example, Excel 2000 makes it much easier to
determine that an individual is working on a particular cell. The
accessibility aid will be able to follow the focus of Excel from
cell to cell.
Support for Microsoft Active Accessibility in the Command Bar
Support for Microsoft Active Accessibility in the Office Command
Bar allows independent software vendors (ISVs) to further develop
support for this feature in their products. ISVs can now
manipulate the Command Bar, rather than just being able to get
information about it. Ultimately, this allows those with
disabilities to use the Command Bar through accessibility aids
such as screen readers.
Improved Programmability
Developers of accessibility aids need to know what is on the
screen and how it is changing, so that they can reflect those
changes through their products. By improving its implementation
of Microsoft Active Accessibility, Office 2000 has made the
programmable objects underlying it more accessible and improved
access to information that was not previously available to these
developers. The native object model in Office 2000 has also been
improved to support the information that those developing
accessibility aids have indicated they need. For example, the
improved native object model allows these aids to better
understand what is currently on the screen. Improving the Office
native object model is a short-term step and Office will continue
to improve its support for Microsoft Active Accessibility.
User Research
An important part of developing Office is listening to those
people who are going to be using it. This principle is also
important in developing the accessibility features in Office. The
following are the key channels through which the Office 2000
development team gathered feedback from the accessibility
community.
Usability Testing
The Office development team wants to ensure that the features
they build work for users in a manner that is consistent with
their natural usage environment. In order to gather the best
information possible about how people use Office features, the
development team conducts usability tests that involve
observing users working with Office in their homes or workplaces
rather than just in a laboratory setting.
The Office team traveled to the homes and workplaces of various
users with a range of disabilities and observed how they used a
series of features in conjunction with accessibility aids. The
objective of these tests was to determine what tasks users can
and cannot accomplish easily, as well as to establish a
historical record of usability benchmarks for future releases.
The methodology of the tests consists of observing users while
they perform certain tasks with Microsoft Office and then
discussing why they performed them as they did and what they
found difficult or easy about each task. The tasks involve
frequently used features. The development team also researched
some features that are less commonly used, but are important to
examine because the design is different or the feature is thought
to be important. These tasks will be independent of one another.
Beta Testing
An additional source of important early feedback for making
Office 2000 more accessible comes from the end users and ISVs who
participate in the Office 2000 Technical Beta program. These beta
testers help the development team to identify important areas for
improvement in the product. ISVs who produce speech recognition
products, screen readers, magnifiers, and on-screen keyboards
have participated in the beta program to provide early feedback
about where Office 2000 could be optimized to work with their
accessibility aids.
Industry Conferences
The Office development team participates in important industry
conferences as a part of their effort to listen to and discuss
features with the accessibility community. Among the conferences
that the Office development team has attended are the annual
conference hosted by the Center on Disabilities of the California
State University at Northridge, as well as the annual Closing the
Gap Conference on Computer Technology in Special Education and
Rehabilitation. These conferences give Microsoft another
opportunity to discuss Office accessibility with ISVs, educators,
and end users.
Microsoft Accessibility Events
The Office Accessibility team also participates in the various
events hosted by Microsoft to discuss accessibility. Events such
as Accessibility Day are held at Microsoft headquarters in
Redmond, Washington, and are gatherings of Microsoft staff and
accessibility technology experts representing government,
industry and disability advocacy groups. The purpose of these
events is to raise awareness among Microsoft employees that
accessibility must be a fundamental part of software design.
For more information: http://www.microsoft.com/office/
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This is a preliminary document and may be changed substantially
prior to final commercial release. This document is provided for
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