Resource List
The Importance of Reading Order to Student Experience
Web Accessibility Criteria: Tab Order – CSUN Universal Design Center
For educators who are designing web pages – setting a purposeful tab order ensures that students using access technology move through content in an intended order. This page has an introduction to the “tabindex” attribute in HTML and how to set the tab order of your web content
Ensuring Correct Reading Order in Documents
Make Slides Easier to Read by Using the Reading Order Pane – Microsoft Support
Reading order is critical in PowerPoint files where the user must explore elements on a slide in a prescribed order (e.g., slide title before body text). This support page from Microsoft outlines the steps to ensure that the reading order of elements on a slide is determined by the content creator. Please note: The reading order in the selection pane in PowerPoint proceeds from the bottom to the top of the list (i.e., the item at the bottom of the list receives focus first, and so on).
PDF Accessibility: Reading Order – Microsoft Accessibility [YouTube; 3:25 min]
This short video provides an overview of how to set the reading order of page elements in a PDF using Adobe Acrobat, ensuring that students using access technology will be able to read the PDF’s contents in the correct order.
Reading order in PDF documents always needs to be manually reviewed, as the built-in accessibility checker cannot tell what the author’s intended reading order should be. This video provides information about how to review and fix reading order.