In order to comply with Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) legislation, there is a new process for posting documents to the college website. This process only applies to documents that will be linked to the site (e.g. PDF, PowerPoint or Word documents). If you are adding or updating website text, simply email the changes to Web Services as per usual.
Step One: Create the Document & Check Accessibility
Whether you are creating a new document or updating an existing one that is already posted on the Conestoga website, the process is the same. After you have created (or edited) the document, check it using Microsoft's Accessibility Checker. For a document to be considered accessible (and be posted on the website) means that you have:
- Corrected errors that were identified in the checker
- Reviewed and, if necessary, corrected warnings that are identified (e.g. reading order)
In addition to the errors and warnings that are identified in the checker, it is expected that you will use proper design by using the Styles feature to create titles and headings. Using Styles will ensure that your document can be easily read by a screen reader.
If you need some assistance to make a document accessible, you can:
- go to the Creating Accessible Documents site for videos and guides
- participate in a Making Word Accessible workshop
- contact Accessibility Consultant Anne Templeman to schedule a coaching session
Note: If you are posting a PDF to the website, you will need to check document accessibility in Adobe Pro (though it is likely that you have created the document in Word, Excel or PowerPoint). If you do not have a copy of Adobe Pro on your computer, contact the
IT Service Desk to install it.
Step Two: Send the Document to Web Services
Once you have checked the accessibility of your document (and made any necessary changes), email the document to Web Services and identify where it should be posted on the college web site.
Step Three: Web Services Completes an Accessibility Check
As part of their quality assurance process, Web Services will also check the accessibility of the document. As a result of their scan they will contact you to either:
- confirm that your document will be posted;
- identify any outstanding errors identified by the Checker that need to be corrected by you before your document can be posted to the web site;
- verify that you have considered warnings identified by the Checker and are ready to proceed with the document as is