Google Docs and Accessibility, Part 1: Documents

Here's the dealio. Google Docs, at this point, incorporates word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings. It's a big chunk 'o stuff, and frankly, I doubt anyone's got the patience to read through a blog post that covers the accessibility of them all. Today's post will tackle just Documents, the word processing portion of Google Docs. I'll get to the others in turn. (If you have a burning desire to hear about one of them next, just drop me a note in the comments!)



First, let's chat a bit about Google Docs overall and how it's different from your standard word processing, spreadsheet, etc. applications.

• Access everywhere: You can get to your Google Docs items from any device that has web access, including smartphones. Access used to be limited on mobile devices to view-only, but you can now edit from mobile devices as well.
• Sharability: With Google Docs, you can easily allow others to view or edit your items, or not. Rather than emailing documents with different versions back and forth, changes are made in real time and there's only one document to keep track of.
• Limited functions: If you are accustomed to the bajillion formatting and functional options in Microsoft Office and expect to see the same in Google Docs, you'll be disappointed. Google Docs is simpler. This is both a good thing and a bad thing, as we'll see later.
• Free: The four-letter f word that is most welcome to a cash-strapped student's ears!

Need to understand more about Google Docs in general? Check out the tour.

Making the Switch

• Use the GAapps SOU page for some handy how-to-switch and how-to-use resources
• Google's Help feature is also, surprisingly, helpful and tends to be written in plain English rather than geekspeak

The Bottom Line: Google Documents Accessibility

Here's the highlights here of accessibility barriers and any recommended workarounds. Keep in mind that you will need to go to Google's Accessibility site for any information directly from Google on accessibility; for some unknown reason, they do not include accessibility concerns within their Help section. Why? Got me. For those who want the picky details, there's Google's evaluation of accessibility in Google Documents.

• Screenreader users: There's some gaps in accessibility for screenreader users, including the ability to detect text attributes, which are not passed through to the screenreader, and lack of row and header indications in document tables. Check out the guide to accessing Google Docs with a screenreader
• Keyboard users: I find Google's support for keyboard use rather lacking. In fact, it's not possible to create a new document with just the keyboard! You can use the bookmarklets on this page to create a toolbar shortcut to create new documents (and spreadsheets and presentations); for screenreader users and keyboard users I'd highly recommend this method. The by-now familiar keystrokes list is also helpful once you get a document actually created. I also recommend taking a look through the screenreader guide above, as screenreaders will be using many of the same navigation strategies you will.
• Color coding: Docs uses color coding to differentiate between different users' changes in a document. This doesn't appear to be a breaking issue, however.

Unique Ways Google Documents Benefits Students with Disabilities

• Never lose a document, never lose your changes: Because Documents is stored on the web, you can get to it from anywhere, and Google's autosave and revision history (under the File menu in the interface) functions mean that you don't have to remember to save and you can go back to previous versions any time you want. Beauty!
• Simple interface: If Word's multitudinous menu options make you want to pull out your hair, the simplicity of Google Documents will be a friendly change for you.
• Templates: There are thousands of user-created templates out there that can take much of the fuss out of setting up and formatting your documents.

Google Documents Settings & Labs for Accessibility

There's not much in the Settings for Documents, period, let alone much that would affect accessibility. However, if you're looking for ways to make life easier, you may want to consider turning on the following options in Labs:

• Apps Search: In Gmail, this lab allows you to search both your email and your Docs for a phrase or person. Any time you can search multiple places from one search bar, I'm totally for it.
• Create a Document: From Gmail, this lab allows you to quickly create a Document; either a new blank doc or one based on the email you've been reading or writing. More importantly, it also allows you to create a new Document from keyboard shortcuts; why this is in Gmail but not Documents itself rather boggles the imagination.

Questions? Think I missed something or got something completely wrong (or even a little wrong)? Let me know in the comments. Next time, I'll tackle Google Spreadsheets. See ya then.