CommonLook® PDF Accessibility Wizard (PAW) for MS Office
'The author should see this [adding accessibility to the Word document] as a normal part of the process rather than an extra, and potentially unexpected, workload and distraction. By making the process much easier and less stressful PAW should make the creation of accessible PDF business-as-usual for any Word document. It eliminates any excuses of time, deadlines or complexity that have been used for not creating accessible PDF up to now.'
- Peter Abrahams,
Practice Leader - Accessibility and Usability,
Bloor Research
PAW is a breakthrough technology that makes it
possible to create accessible PDF documents
directly from Microsoft Office applications .
Organizations no longer require specialized
teams to handle the accessibility process, significantly
lowering the cost of compliance with accessibility standards.
PAW makes accessibility an integral part of
the authoring process. As easy to use as spell check,
PAW enables organizations to greatly improve the
quality and quantity of accessible information. Use of PAW
does not require prior knowledge of accessibility as the
Accessibility Wizard presents simple-to-understand instructions
that guide the user through Section 508 and other important accessibility checkpoints.
PAW is designed to minimize the time it takes to add accessibility
to Word and PDF documents. Users are
presented with only those checkpoints that are
relevant to the content of the MS Office document they are authoring.
Additionally, PAW
enables users to check for and add accessibility
information where such information is supported by MS Office.
Read more about PAW
Features and Benefits
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Improved Quality of Accessible Documents:
Content authors provide accessibility information at document
creation time.
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Increased Quantity of Accessible Documents:
Accessibility becomes part of the standard authoring process.
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Lower cost of Compliance with Accessibility Standards: Reduces need for expensive, after-the-fact accessibility repairs.
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Author-Level Tool: Integrated in MS Office and activated when a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document is saved as an Accessible PDF.
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Comprehensive Verification: Applies all PDF-relevant Section 508 checkpoints and identifies instances of non-compliance.
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Easy Remediation: Corrects Section 508 compliance problems quickly and easily.
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Easy-to-Use: Wizard automates most tasks and provides easy-to-understand detailed instructions. No prior knowledge of accessibility is required.
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Fast: Takes less than 5 minutes for an average 5-page document.
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Style Mapping: Standard MS Word styles are automatically mapped to appropriate PDF tags.
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Table Formatting: Fixes complex tables. Generates appropriate PDF structures for headers and creates ‘speak text’.
Supported Platforms
Windows Vista, XP or 2000.
MS Word 2007.
Windows Internet Explorer 6.0 or later is required.
Note: PAW is currently available for MS
Word 2007. Versions of PAW for Excel and PowerPoint will
be available in the future.