Karlen Communications
Conference Handouts

This page contains conference handouts and more general "how to" documents. Some of these documents might also appear on one of our web pages specific to a Microsoft Office product.

All tutorials related to Microsoft Office for Windows 2016 are on a page dedicated to that version of Office.

Journal of Computers Helping People with Special Needs

PDF and the User Experience Survey, ICCHP Conference, Linz Austria, 2016, Springer Lecture Series, McCall.

A Strategic Approach to Document Accessibility: Integrating PDF/UA into your Electronic Content, ICCHP Conference, Paris France 2014, Springer Lecture Series, Mccall/Spencer..

Legislation and Standards of Accessibility versus Intelligent Design, Universal Learning Design, ICCHP/ULD Conference Proceedings, Paris France, 2014, McCall. This is a tagged PDF document.

Journal of Technology & Persons with Disabilities

PDF/UA Structure Elements and the User Experience Brings together the two parts of accessible PDF documents, the structure elements as identified in ISO 32000, how they are implemented through ISO 14289 and the user experience. Structure elements or Tags provide the mechanism by which PDF documents are accessible to those of us with disabilities. However, there appears to be a disconnect between the implementation of Tags in a PDF document and the user experience.

Globally Defining an Inclusive Education Standard is a paper identifying the need to globally define what we mean by "inclusive education" for people with disabilities. Among the recommendations in the paper is the hiring of teachers with disabilities and the reform of curriculum to ensure that all graduates (with and without disabilities) are ready for employment in a global economy that establishes accessible digital environments and content as part of "who we are. as per the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. This paper was presented at CSUN 2016 in March 2016.

Featured Guest in Blog Articles

Q&A with MVP Karen McCall"As someone with a visual disability, technology has been the key to my lifelong learning"

MVP Spotlight: Karen McCall, MVP for Word and Accessibility MVP, by Microsoft MVP Community, United States.

Accessible PDF and the Potential of PDF/UA by AccessIQ, Australia.

Webinars

Accessible Word to PDF Documents, WAG Webinar, item 3.1 in the Table of Contents.

Accessing PDF Forms 101: Webinar 1 of 3 for AMAC

Accessible Form Template Design: Webinar 2 of 3 for AMAC

The Basics of PDF Form Controls: Webinar 3 of 3 for AMAC

The Need for a Global Inclusive Education Standard, WAG Webinar, item 4.2 in the Table of Contents.

EASI Webinars on Accessibility, PowerPoint and Excel

Create More Accessible Images.

Accessible PowerPoint Placeholders.

Accessible Slide Templates.

Send to Microsoft PowerPoint (create your PowerPoint Presentation in Microsoft Word).

Office 2007 Ribbon Commands (sample of a Table of Contents in an Excel workbook).

Week 1 presentation in alternate format.

Resources from slides for the EASI Accesibility, PowerPoint and Excel webinars.

Conference Handouts

Comparing OCR in PDF Tagging Tools: Adobe Acrobat Pro, Foxit, PowerPDF (2019 with sample documents attached)

Comparing TOC in PDF Tagging Tools: Adobe Acrobat Pro, Foxit, PowerPDF (2019 with sample documents attached)

Hearing the Needs of an Aging Demographic (CSUN 2017)

Windows Virtual Desktop from the Keyboard (Windows 10)

Windows 10 Accessibility (EASI Webinar August 2016).

PDF and the User Experience Survey Results

Global Inclusive Quality Education Standard

Understanding and Advocating for PDF/UA

The Need to Globally Define an Inclusive Education Standard.

PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility) and Section 508 (NPRM 2015)

AODA: Buying into Collaboration (University of Guelph 2014)

AODA: Blueprint for Exclusion - A Case Study 2013 conference presentation in tagged PDF.

AODA: A blueprint for Exclusion, Update 2014 conference presentation in tagged PDF.

Accessible Document Design Conference Handout 2017 with attachments.

List of conferences.

EASI Advanced Word Tutorials

The following tutorial files were created to support a four part webinar series I did for EASI on advanced features in Word. The tutorials are done from the perspective of someone using a screen reader to add Footnotes, Citations, and a Bibliography, use Track Changes, create an Index, modify a Table of Contents or import/export styles. The tutorials can be used as standalone documents for those who want to learn how to use these features with adaptive technology and from the keyboard (not the mouse).

The tagged PDF documents have sample Word documents attached so you can practice. I’ve write protected the attached Word documents.

Importing and Exporting Styles

Customize a Table of Contents

Creating an Index

Footnotes and Endnotes

Citations and Bibliography

Track Changes, Comments and Comparing Documents

A Picture is Worth 300 Words This CSUN 2001 presentation by Wright State University and the Dayton Art Institute is an excellent resource when looking at the quality and quantity of Alt Text for images. While most of the time, as a document author, you would want to be more subjective, having to work through an exercise where you have to use a complex image such as a piece of art and only use 300 words to describe it to those who can’t see it is both fun and educational!

Handouts for EASI Webinars

The following files were used in the "Columns in Word and Tagged PDF" webianr.

Columns in Word (source Word document).

Columns in Word tagged from Microsoft Word conversion tool.

Columns in Word tagged from Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Ribbon.

Columns in Word - Word document repaired

Columns in Word Repaired converted to tagged PDF

Making Applications Easier to Use

Make the Internet Easier to See.

Outlook 2010Attachments (and RTF Mail Format).

PDF from the Ground Up

Older Handouts - But Still Useful!

The resources relating to adaptive technology and the equipment setup checklist are based on the Ontario Ministry of Health's ADP [Assistive Devices Program] criteria. Feedback is always welcome.