5: Make Your Own Workplace Accessible

Meet Julie

A party hat

Caption: Julie doesn't realize her email will prevent someone who uses a screen reader program from attending Bob's party.

Julie is planning a retirement party for Bob. She wants as many of Bob's current and past coworkers as possible to attend the party. She creates the invitation in MS Word, saves it as a PDF for printing and mailing, and then exports it as a JPEG image file to be included in an email.

What Jeff Sees

  • Jeff is blind and uses the JAWS screen reader to access his email.
  • The screen reader announces the subject of the email: “Bob’s retirement.”
  • When it gets to the image, JAWS says, “blank.”
  • Remember, pictures of text are not accessible.

Outline