Chapter 4: Lists & Textboxes

Lists

Main point

It’s important to create properly formatted lists. This creates a structure that everyone can follow — including screen reader users and those who may use a keyboard to navigate.

Avoid manually creating lists by typing numbers or hyphens. Instead, use the built-in features in Word or Pressbooks to create your lists. Using the built-in features will create proper coding in the background to inform screen reader users of list information.

• Ordered = numbered. Good for processes or chronological events.
• Unordered = bulleted. Good when order doesn’t matter.

Top tip: Keep your lists concise and use consistent formatting throughout your book.

WCAG Success Criteria

• 1.3.1 — Info and Relationships [Level A]: Information, structure, and relationships conveyed through presentation can be programmatically determined or are available in text.
• 1.3.2 — Meaningful Sequence [Level A]: When the sequence in which content is presented affects its meaning, a correct reading sequence can be programmatically determined.

How-to

Word

To create a list within Word, type either the number followed by a period and a space, or type in an asterisk (*) or a hyphen (—) followed by a space and Word will automatically start a list.

OR

Type up your text and then select the text and choose either the Bullets or Numbering options within the Paragraph settings.

Pressbooks

1. If your content is already in Pressbooks, open it up in the Visual editor.
2. Select the text you want to edit and select the option for either the bulleted or numbered list.

Textboxes

Main point

In a Word document or PowerPoint, best practice says not to include textboxes in your content. These are inaccessible because the content cannot be accessed by a screen reader user. However, because Pressbooks is set up differently, you can use textboxes to make your content stand out.

You can add almost any type of content in a textbox, so apply the other concepts learned in this guide to make that content accessible (e.g., use tables and lists correctly). Additionally, you can make your textboxes have specific colors, so make sure that you have good color contrast.

How-to

Word

If you are writing your content in Word, you can use the Pressbooks shortcodes to identify text you want to eventually display in a textbox.

Example: [ textbox]Your textbox content here.[ /textbox]

Pressbooks

If your content is already in Pressbooks, select the text you want to display in this textbox. Then open the dropdown menu for Textboxes and select your choice. You can edit the appearance later!

Resources

Create a bulleted or numbered list — Microsoft Support

Edit Content with the Visual and Code Editors — Pressbooks User Guide

Create and Style Textboxes — Pressbooks User Guide