About Creating Accessible Source Documents

Learn How/Put Into Practice

Module Topics

Module Outcomes

Define what accessible source documents are
Identify the steps to convert source documents properly into a PDF format
Locate Adobe Preferences to ensure accessible PDFs are created from source documents

What are Source Documents

Source documents are content that you create in applications such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel and convert into PDF to make available online to your students or to the public on a Canvas course or website. These can be in the form of your course syllabus in Word, lecture presentations in PowerPoint, homework handouts etc.

Why are accessible source documents important?

Accessible source documents are important because they will already contain the formatting and structure needed to access them effectively within the application they were created e.g. Microsoft Word. Likewise, if you convert these accessible source documents into other formats such as PDF or HTML format, the resulting content will contain the original formatting and structure you added to those source files and make it possible to create accessible alternate formats for students needing access to other formats of those documents.