About Accessibility

Accessibility in Microsoft Office 2010

Microsoft Office 2010 continues our dedication to making Microsoft Office products more available to people with disabilities, as well as helping all users create more accessible content. In addition to many features that you might be familiar with, Office 2010 includes several new and updated accessibility features.

Accessibility Checker Word 2010, Excel 2010, and PowerPoint 2010 include an Accessibility Checker that helps users create more accessible content. By identifying areas that might be challenging for users with disabilities to view or use, and providing a task pane to review those areas, users can fix potential problems with their content.

Backstage view Actions previously found on the File menu or Microsoft Office button, such as Print and Save, can now be found in the Microsoft Office Backstage view. By presenting commands more logically and providing more detail, users will have more context and information about the commands they use.

Hear text read aloud with Mini Translator At times you may receive email messages or documents that contain words in unfamiliar languages. With the Microsoft Office 2010 Mini Translator, you can point to a word or selected phrase with your mouse and the translation displays in a small window. The Mini Translator also includes a Play button so you can hear an audio pronunciation of the word or phrase, and a Copy button so you can paste the translation into another document.

Add alternative text descriptions to shapes, pictures, tables, and graphics You can now add a description to tables, PivotTables, images, shapes, and other objects, similar to a second level of alternative (ALT) text. This helps authors describe complex content to readers who cannot see those objects.

Use Full Screen Reading view Word 2010 includes a Full Screen Reading view that improves the resolution and display of text for reading on the screen.

Use the keyboard to work with ribbon programs The menus and toolbars in all Office 2010 programs have been replaced with the ribbon. To move through the ribbon with a keyboard instead of a mouse, you can press CTRL+RIGHT ARROW or CTRL+LEFT ARROW on a ribbon tab to move to the next or previous ribbon group tab.

Create accessible web portals SharePoint Designer 2010 includes a built-in compatibility checker for common accessibility standards to help make sure web sites are easy to use for everyone. “More Accessible Mode” in SharePoint Services provides greater accessibility for custom controls.

Source: Microsoft