Call to action (CTA) is a marketing term for “any design to prompt an immediate response or encourage an immediate sale.” A CTA most often refers to the use of words or phrases that can compel an audience to act in a specific way. [SOURCE]
I don’t know about you, but I find some online CTA messages overly manipulative and incredibly insulting.
Using these types of over-the-top directives may also cause you to lose business with a particular audience…namely people who suffer from social anxiety who find these types of messages overwhelming.
FACT: Social Anxiety Disorder Affects 15 Million U.S. Adults
The ADA defines disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH):
“Social anxiety disorder (SAD – also called social phobia) is a mental health condition. It is an intense, persistent fear of being watched and judged by others. This fear can affect work, school, and other day-to-day activities. SAD affects 15 million adults, or 6.8% of the U.S. population. SAD is equally common among men and women and typically begins around age 13.”
“The defining feature of social anxiety disorder is intense anxiety or fear of being judged, negatively evaluated, or rejected in a social or performance situation. People with social anxiety disorder may worry about acting or appearing visibly anxious (e.g., blushing, stumbling over words), or being viewed as stupid, awkward, or boring.”
1) Choosing not to sign up for a beginner’s guide to gardening
“No thanks, I know everything about gardening.”
2) Choosing not to subscribe to a magazine
“I’m boring.”
“In both cases,” Firth writes, “you can clearly see how the option that the site doesn’t want to happen is intentionally worded to either shame or scare the user, whether they meant to or not. Here, those who are susceptible to feeling embarrassed, humiliated, or judged negatively have their access needs used against them, simply because they don’t want to sign up to a newsletter or give out their details. Even if they choose not to perform the action, they still had to face the decision.”
BEST PRACTICE
Use CTAs that don’t shame or manipulate users.
How about simply using the confirmation options of “Yes” or “No” to be the most inclusive.
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Whether you have limited experience with the PDF remediation process, are expanding your knowledge on how to remediate PDFs, or simply need a resource that can help remind you how to fix a frustrating error, the info provided in this e-book can help.
As an accessibility testing auditor & remediator, I provide commented layouts in PDF format to website developers to help them fix the sections of web pages that need to meet WCAG 2.1 Guideline compliance.
Many of the web pages have the same header and footer content. It is time consuming to have to comment the same sections over and over again for each PDF website page layout.
SO…HERE’S THE FIX
1) In Acrobat Pro DC, add comments to the header and footer (or any other sections that are consistent on all the website pages you are testing) of a “master” layout PDF file…most likely the Home Page. Save the PDF file.
2) In Acrobat Pro DC, open the “clean” copy of the PDF where you want to import the comments.
3) Click the Comment Tool to open the Comments panel.
4) Click on the three dots in the top right corner of the Comments panel.
5) Select Import Data File.
6) In the Import Comments dialog, select the PDF file that contains the tester’s comments you want to import.
7) Click Open and the comments will be imported into the “clean” PDF. Save the PDF.
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Instant Download!
Whether you have limited experience with the PDF remediation process, are expanding your knowledge on how to remediate PDFs, or simply need a resource that can help remind you how to fix a frustrating error, the info provided in this e-book can help.
What happens when your tagged text doesn’t match visual text?
Even though the text in your PDF looks correct, there may be typos or extra spacing behind the scenes that causes screen readers to announce the content incorrectly.
Tagged text must be free from line breaks and split words. The Adobe Accessibility Checker does not alert you to these issues.
Here’s how you can determine the back-end content issues and fix them, using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
How to Figure Out What is Wrong with the Content
1) Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
2) Select File > Save as > Text (Plain).
3) Save the file to your computer.
4) Open the text file in Microsoft Word.
5) Use the grammar and spell check tools to find typos or spacing issues.
How to Fix These Problems in the PDF File
1) With the PDF open in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, select the Tags Tree
2) Locate the tag containing the typo or spacing issue.
3) Right click and select Copy Contents to Clipboard
4) Right click the tag again and select Properties
5) Paste the copied content into the “Actual Text” field and make the corrections.
6) Save the PDF file.
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Instant Download!
Whether you have limited experience with the PDF remediation process, are expanding your knowledge on how to remediate PDFs, or simply need a resource that can help remind you how to fix a frustrating error, the info provided in this e-book can help.
WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints
Web developers serious about accessible design ensure that all web page and app elements — buttons, links, form controls etc. — are reachable by the tab key on the keyboard.
Why?
Many users are physically unable to use a mouse, and need to navigate through the page using only the keyboard.
How can you test a website or app using only the keyboard?
Here are some common key combinations used when testing keyboard operation of web pages and apps:
Tab – move to the next link, form element or button. Shift+Tab – move to the previous link, form element, or button. Enter – activate the current link or button. Space – check or uncheck a checkbox form element. Will also activate a button that currently has focus. Up/Down arrow keys – move between radio buttons or, in some cases, menu links. Right/Left arrow keys – in some cases, move between menu links or adjust sliders in audio and video plugins. Escape – Close the current modal dialog or dropdown menu and return focus to the element that spawned it.
Great ideas are all around us. You just have to listen.
Case in point: a chance meeting with my neighbor John last week when I was out walking my Black Lab Gracie.
“My vision is not what it used to be, Mary,” John told me as he bent to pet Gracie behind her ears. A retired business executive in his mid-70s, John was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago, and has been dealing with low vision for the last few months.
According to folks at The Cleveland Clinic, low vision is “vision loss that can’t be corrected with glasses, contacts or surgery. It isn’t blindness as limited sight remains. Low vision can include blind spots, poor night vision and blurry sight. The most common causes are age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetes.”
John told me he was having a difficult time reading online content…especially product information so he could make informed purchasing decisions. I suggested he give a screen reader such as NVDA or JAWS a try. “Cheez, Mary,” he replied. “I am so ‘old school.’ Every time I try to install something new on my laptop, it messes everything up. A friend of mine has a screen reader, but the voice sounds so monotonous I find it difficult to understand what is being announced. Some people I know have those Alexa gadgets, but, to me, they feel intrusive. I don’t want all this confusing technology in my life.”
So what can be done to help a not-so-technically-savvy Internet user who is in the process of losing his/her sight?
“I just wish I could push a button on a product page and have the content read to me,” John said as he turned to walk back to his house.
Hmmm…interesting.
In his article Voice Content and Usability, product architect and strategist Preston So writes: “There’s one significant problem with screen readers: they’re difficult to use and unremittingly verbose. The visual structures of websites and web navigation don’t translate well to screen readers, sometimes resulting in unwieldy pronouncements that name every manipulable HTML element and announce every formatting change. For many screen reader users, working with web-based interfaces exacts a cognitive toll.”
And remember that conversations mean business. According to Michael McTear, Zoraida Callejas, and David Griol in The Conversational Interface, we start up a conversation because:
– we need something done (such as a transaction), – we want to know something (information of some sort), or – we are social beings and want someone to talk to (conversation for conversation’s sake).
Enter The Talking Web Page for Products
Inspired by John’s wish, I contacted marketing audio pro Frank Pival of Never Alone On Hold, a Washington-state-based company specializing in the scripting and production of on-hold marketing messages. My thought was if an audio message could be professionally produced in a conversational tone, then it can also be embedded as an audio file on a web page so the content could be easily played and understood. Successful human conversation has many nuances: emphasis of certain words, pauses that attract attention and so much more.
“Conveying your content message clearly to customers is imperative in these challenging times,” Frank told me. “Providing a unique economical way your “voice” can be gently amplified over the din of your competitors is the key to continued business success. The on-hold audio messaging concept can certainly work for web page product content. You are providing the user with an easy way to comprehend the product’s info and your call-to-action message. This is something your competition has probably not even considered.”
Hear It for Yourself – Monotone vs. Conversational
As an experiment, I decided to use part of the information from a web page about an e-book I’ve authored called “PDF Accessibility Remediation: How to Fix 40 Common Errors.” You can see the original page here. For this test, I reduced the script to certain sections of the content for a shorter test.
I sent Frank the script and he produced and returned an MP3 file that I could place on the web page using an accessible media player called Able Player, an open-source fully-accessible cross-browser HTML5 media player you can use to embed audio or video within a WordPress page.
I also made an audio recording in MP3 format of the NVDA screen reader announcing the same script I sent to Frank.
Monotone Audio Example: NVDA Screen ReaderThat Also Announces HTML Elements As Part of the Content
Conversational Audio Example by Frank Pival, Never Alone on Hold
Some items to note:
In the NVDA Monotone example, the tone is flat. You can hear the screen reader also announces information about some of the HTML elements it encounters:
1) the words “heading” is announced before a headline is read 2) the phrase “list with four items” is announced before reading the bulleted list items
There are also an announcement glitch on the word PDFs:
3) The word “PDFs” is read as “P-D-F-S”
In the Conversational Audio Example created by Frank, the tone is enthusiastic. The information simply flows and is more easily understandable due to the emphasis on certain words and pauses. There is a clear call the action that attracts the user’s attention.
An Important Review
Yesterday I demoed the Talking Web Page test for John. When he heard the screen reader version of the audio, he was not impressed. But when he heard Frank’s version, John clapped his hands and exclaimed, “Yes, that is what I am talking about! I have no need for your PDF remediation book, Mary, but now I understand what it offers. Such a simple process. And I didn’t have to read a word.”
Give It a Shot
Remember: the senior population is growing. By 2030, people over the age of 65 are predicted to make up 20.6% of the population of the US. Vision loss is by far the most common disability reported by elderly individuals.
If seniors can make use of your products and services, make it easy for them to hear about your offerings via Talking Web pages.
You’ll be outsmarting your competition and increasing your business.
A word cloud is a collection, or cluster, of words depicted in different sizes. The bigger and bolder the word appears, the more often it’s mentioned within a given text and the more important it is. [SOURCE]
So…how do you make a word cloud accessible?
To make a word cloud accessible for folks using screen readers or the keyboard to navigate the content, ensure that the raw cloud data is structured using HTML OL list elements (ordered lists defined by the OL tag).
By ensuring that the raw data is structured with OL tags in HTML, screen readers such as JAWS and NVDA will recognize the hierarchy of the list items and announce the information as it is structured and in the order that the content appears in the Document Object Model (DOM). The tabbing order will also be recognized within browsers as well. This will ensure that the most popular items or those items with the highest frequency will be accessed first with the keyboard.
Exporting a PDF document to a text file can be accomplished using the File > Save As process using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
But what if you have hundreds of PDFs that you need to convert to text so that the content can be imported into a database? And what if some of those PDF files are scanned documents that also need to be converted to text as well?
The good news is you can create an action to run this “batch” conversion using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
Step-by-Step Instructions
1) Gather all the PDF files you want to convert to text in one directory on your computer.
2) Open Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
3) Select the “Tools” from the main Acrobat toolbar.
4) Double-click on “Action Wizard” tool icon or click the Open button to access to tool controls.
5) Click on “New Action” icon on the “Action Wizard” toolbar to create a new batch processing “action”.
6) In the right column (Action steps to show) of the Create Action dialog box, click the folder icon, then choose the directory on your computer where the PDFs that need to be converted are located.
7) Under the Choose tools to add column on the left side, click the Recognize Text option. Click the right arrow in the middle column to add the tool to the batch action.
8) Under the Choose tools to add column on the left side, click the Save & Export option. Click the right arrow in the middle column to add the tool to the batch action.
9) Under the Action steps to show column on the right side, click the Save option. Click on the Security Settings option. In the Output Options dialog, select the Keep original file names option. Click the Export File(s) to Alternate Format button. From the Export to: dropdown menu, select Text (Plain). Click the OK button.
10) Click the Save button. In the Save Action dialog, type in the Action Name. Add a (optional) description. Click the Save button.
How to Run the Batch Conversion
1) From the Action Wizard, click on the Batch Action Name from the Action List.
NOTE: If the folder where the PDFs you want to batch does not show up, you can select it by clicking Add Folder > Add Folder, then navigating to the directory where the PDFs are located.
2) Click the blue Start button to begin the batch process.
3) The converted text files should be saved in the same directory as the original PDFs.
NOTE: Have been receiving lots of questions concerning the accessibility of math and scientific formulas in PDF documents. This post is the first in a series of how to make STEM content accessible in different document content.
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Sometimes just complying with basic standards is not enough if you want your PDF document content to be accessible to all assistive technologies.
Case in point: consider STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) formulas.
According to PDF/UA accessibility guidelines, “All mathematical expressions shall be enclosed within a Formula tag and shall have an ALT attribute.”
How to Describe an Equation
Have a look at this math equation:
You have to remember that the screen reader user is listening to the equation, so its ALT text description would be set to:
ALT=”m equals begin fraction m sub 0 over begin square root 1 minus begin fraction v sup 2 over c sup 2 end fraction end square root end fraction” [SOURCE]
Advice from Adobe
“Because speech software may handle Formula tags differently from normal text, it may be necessary to add a description using alternate text.”
However…
…according to Ted Page of Accessible Digital Documents, if you do so, the content may not be read by some earlier versions of the NVDA screen reader, with or without an ALT attribute.
Solutions That You Should Test
Nest a <P> tag in the Formula tag that has a text alternative in an Actual Text attribute. This content can be accessed by NVDA.
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The Formula tag is an inline level element. If it is used as a block level element, the attribute “Placement: Block” is required. Otherwise some assistive technologies are not able to present it correctly. Follow these steps:
1. In the Acrobat Pro Tags pane, right click the Formula tag. 2. Select Properties. 3. On the Tag tab of the Object Properties dialog, click the Edit Attribute Objects button. 4. In the Attributes dialog, if there is not a “/Attribute Object # <<Dictionary>>” item, click the New Item button. 5. Select “/Attribute Object # <<Dictionary>>” and click the New Item button. 6. In the Add Key and Value dialog, enter Placement in the Key field, and Block in the Value field. Leave Name as the Value Type. 7. Click OK.
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Instant Download!
Whether you have limited experience with the PDF remediation process, are expanding your knowledge on how to remediate PDFs, or simply need a resource that can help remind you how to fix a frustrating error, the info provided in this e-book can help.
