New Editions Consulting, Inc. offers technical assistance in accessibility to grantees, individuals, and organizations who submit their rehabilitation training materials to the NCRTM. The resources on this page are designed for a wide audience: whether you are just getting started in making your resources accessible or continuing to further develop your remediation skills.
Why Accessibility is Important
These brief tutorial videos are a quick and easy way to get started, review why it is important for your training materials to be accessible for all users. and to understand how people use screen readers.
- Why is Accessibility Important? (3.5 min.) A short video explaining the importance of accessibility.
- Screen Reader Simulation (6 min.) demonstrates the difficulties users with screen readers have when reading inaccessible documents.
This page includes Portable Document Format (PDF), Webinar, and Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel document accessibility resources for beginners to learn about how to make their products accessible for all users. More advanced accessibility specialists can find additional information in the NCRTM library.
PDF Accessibility
The easiest way to create an accessible PDF is to begin with an accessible document. Checking and remediating PDF documents require Adobe Acrobat Professional software.
Brief Tutorial Videos
These brief tutorial videos are a fast and easy way to get started and/or review how to check and remediate documents in Adobe PDF.
- Checking Document Accessibility in PDFs (13 min.)
- Remediating Inaccessible PDF documents – These videos demonstrate how to remediate PDF documents that are inaccessible:
Quick Guides
This quick guide created by the New Editions Section 508 Team, overviews the basics of creating accessible PDF documents.
Federal Resources
- U.S. Department of Education:
- Section508.gov: Create Accessible PDFs – Learn how to create accessible PDF documents that conform to the revised Section 508 standards.
Webinar Accessibility
Online meetings and training have expanded access to learning to a much wider audience. Here is a brief webinar and guides to help you create and manage meetings, webinars and presentations that are accessible to all audiences.
Brief Tutorial Videos
This brief video reviews the ten most important items to keep in mind when creating and hosting webinars.
Quick Guides
This checklist, created by the New Editions Section 508 Team, provides items to consider when creating and hosting a webinar.
Federal Resources
- U.S. Department of Education:
- Section508.gov: Creating Accessible Media – Get a brief overview on how to develop high quality audio, video, and multimedia that is accessible to users who cannot see visual information, or hear information conveyed using sound. Learn about text-based equivalents, captions and synchronized audio descriptions.
PowerPoint Accessibility
Microsoft PowerPoint is the most popular tool to support presentations. All presentations posted online should be accessible.
Brief Tutorial Videos
These brief tutorial videos offer fast and easy ways to get started and/or review how to create, check and remediate documents in Microsoft PowerPoint.
- Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations (6 min.)
- Checking Document Accessibility in PowerPoint (9 min.)
- Remediating Inaccessible PowerPoint Presentations (4 min.)
Quick Guides
This quick guide created by the New Editions Section 508 Team, overviews the basics of creating accessible PowerPoint presentations.
Federal Resources
- U.S. Department of Education:
- Section508.gov: Create Accessible PowerPoint Presentations – Tips on how to create accessible Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. Note, much of this guidance predates the revised Section 508 standards.
Word Accessibility
Microsoft Word is a fundamental word processing program that millions use every day. Due to its popularity and widespread use, it is important to understand how to create or remediate an accessible word document.
Brief Tutorial Videos
These brief tutorial videos offer fast and easy ways to get started and/or review how to create, check and remediate documents in Microsoft Word.
- Creating Accessible Word Documents (5 min.)
- Quick Tips for Improving the Accessibility of Word Documents (14 min.)
- Checking Document Accessibility in Word (11 min.)
- Remediating Inaccessible Word Documents – This two-part video series demonstrates how to remediate inaccessible Word documents:
Quick Guides
This quick guide created by the New Editions Section 508 Team, overviews the essential steps to creating accessible word documents.
Federal Resources
- U.S. Department of Education:
- Sectiong508.gov: Creating Accessible Documents – Learn how to create accessible Microsoft Word documents that conform to the revised Section 508 standards.
Excel Accessibility
Microsoft Excel is used by businesses of all sizes to store and organize data. It is important to understand how to create excel workbooks all can access.
Brief Tutorial Videos
These brief tutorial videos offer fast and easy ways to get started and/or review how to create, check, and remediate documents in Microsoft Excel.
- Creating Accessible Excel Documents (11 min.)
- Remediating Excel Documents (9 min.)
Quick Guides
This quick guide created by the New Editions Section 508 Team, overviews the essential steps to creating accessible excel documents.
Federal Resources
- U.S. Department of Education:
- Sectiong508.gov: Creating Accessible Spreadsheets – Learn how to create accessible Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that conform to the revised Section 508 standards.