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The main problem with using Microsoft Word as a web page (HTML) editor is that Word create styles that are complex and poorly written. If you look at the native HTML code that Word creates, you will see dozens of lines of styles which are difficult or impossible for some screen readers and other adaptive software to handle. Therefore it is recommended that you do not use Word to create web pages. Instead, we recommend using Microsoft FrontPage with an accessible template, Macromedia Dreamweaver, or another HTML editor such as the free HTML-Kit. If you must use MS Word to create web pages, use styles rather than simply formatting the text, and please label all graphics with alt text. You should also read and follow the Microsoft Word Accessibility Techniques from WebAIM.org.
If you embed MS Word documents in links from Blackboard please be aware of the following. Issue: Screen reader software such as JAWS cannot successfully open Microsoft Word documents (.DOC) or (.RTF) embedded in frames in web pages. Unfortunately, this is exactly the situation with Blackboard. Solution #1: Open the Word document, select all, and copy and paste the information into a new Blackboard document -- effectively creating an HTML document. Solution #2: Offer the same document twice with two separate links. This lets your users choose an accessible alternative format besides inaccessible Microsoft Word or RTF: plain text (.txt) or HTML (.htm).
Making Word Documents Accessible from the Access E-Learning tutorial of the Georgia Tech Research on Accessible Distance Education (GRADE) project at Georgia Tech
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