User`s guide

D.3 Designing for flexibility

Flexibility is the key to providing accessible reports. Because different users require different levels of

accessibility, it is good practice to provide a variety of presentation styles and methods to meet the

needs of as many people as possible. For a detailed report, however, you may not be able to provide

multiple presentation styles without cluttering the report with extra objects.

To address this problem, plan the degree to which you want to integrate accessible formats into your

reports. You can provide accessible formatting for each object, for each section, or as a subreport. You

can then allow users to choose their own accessibility options using a parameter field that prompts

them to choose whether or not to display accessible formats.

Using this parameter field, you can conditionally format objects, or conditionally suppress sections that

address different access needs. Or you can provide different display options by using subreports.

D.3.1 Accessibility and conditional formatting

Using the accessibility parameter field in simple formulas, you can provide multiple formats for any

object in a report. If a user chooses "Yes" when prompted by the parameter, the conditional formulas

will ensure that the objects are modified with accessible formatting conventions. If a user chooses "No",

then the report appears without accessible formatting, perhaps in the standard company template.

For accessible text formatting, you can follow the guidelines suggested by this section and by the W3C,

or you can survey your report users to determine the formats that work best for them. After you determine

the formatting options you want to use, you can create conditional formulas that define the options. For

example, you can display all database fields in a large Arial font, in white text on a black background,

with the Can Grow option enabled.

The following procedure creates a conditional formatting formula based on the ?Access parameter field.

The formula increases the font size if the ?Access parameter field is set to "Yes". You can use similar

formulas to change colors, add borders, or enable the Can Grow setting. For complete instructions on

conditionally formatting fields and using the Format Formula Editor, see the

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Help

Note:

If text objects are too small to accommodate the enlarged font, you can use a similar conditional

formatting formula to enable the Can Grow setting, which appears on the Common tab of the Format

Editor.

2012-03-14690

Creating Accessible Reports