Only true headings and lists will convey semantic meaning to a screen reader user. In other words, OOo for Mac has the potential to create documents that are more accessible than documents created in MS Office for Mac. But on a Mac, there are a couple of very important accessibility features available in Writer that are not available in Word (the most prominent feature missing in Word on a Mac is probably the ability to add alt text to images). Note: On a PC, most of the accessibility features in MS Word and OOo Writer are very similar.

If you export the ODT file to another format (usually DOC, PDF or HTML), ensure that the exported file is accessible as well.

Improve the native accessibility of the OOo Writer ODT file.

There are at least two things that can be done to increase the accessibility of OOo Writer documents: In this resource, files created in Writer will be referred to as ODT files and Writer Files.

The extension for files created in OOo Writer files is ODT (OpenDocument text). Note: saves files to the OpenDocument format or ODF. For those of you familiar with Microsoft Office, the following table should help clarify the similarities between MS Office and OOo: is not quite as robust as Microsoft Office, but it provides almost all the features your average user will encounter. Several government agencies (including the state of Massachusetts), institutions and individuals use as their primary office suite.

Although it is often called Open Office, the correct name of the suite of tools is, often abbreviated OOo. is a free, open source office suite, comparable to Microsoft Office. Developing educational resources NCDAE Tips and Tools: Writer

Writer open office