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Grackle

Anyone with an APS.edu email address can use Grackle to create accessible Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Grackle

APS is excited about Grackle! Grackle is a suite of add-ons for Google’s G Suite that will help you create accessible documents, sheets, and slides right from your existing Google files. Grackle is a powerful remediation solution that works directly in Google’s applications. 

Simply open your Google document and select Grackle from the add-on menu. Grackle points out accessibility issues in your Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides to simplify the remediation process.

It's as easy as click, review, and fix:

  1. Run the Grackle extension on a Google Doc, Google Slide, or Google Sheet created in Google.
  2. Grackle shows you what is and is not accessible.
  3. Grackle explains each issue and helps you resolve the issue.

Watch Grackle in Action

Video Transcript

Hello and welcome to making your Google documents accessible. In these next few videos, I'm going to show you the tool that you can use in Google Docs to make your document such as this one, which is my syllabus, accessible. Now you can do about this in a few different ways of having the content in the Google Doc. You can simply just type it out in Google Docs or like I did here I created originally in Microsoft Word and then just pasted it into Google Docs. So now what I want to do is actually be able to check it and see what errors that I may have that are not accessible. By default, you're not going to be able to check it. Google Docs just doesn't have an accessibility checker similar to Microsoft Word. But, there is a way to get one, and I want to show you how to do that. If you notice here up at the top, you'll see something called add-ons. Click on that tab. And I already have it so showing a Grackle Doc's it's ready to launch but if you don't have Grackle Doc's already installed in your Google Docs click on get add-ons. You can just type up accessibility or since we already know the name of the tool, just type in Grackle. Once you do that it's going to show you either if you have it already installed and if you don't you'll see it'll be this blue plus free button. That'll probably what yours will look like here mine says manage because I already have it in my Google Docs so click on the download and once you do it will be really quickly installed into your Google Docs. This is the accessibility checker for it. Very similar to Microsoft Word. So once you install, go back to add-ons, and select grackle Docs and launch it. Once you launch it, it's going to read and scan through your document just to check for any errors that you may have. This is very, very similar to the accessibility checker in Microsoft Word. See it took no time at all. Anything that's in red and these little X's, is showing straight-up errors that you'll need to fix. This is something that you'll probably see in most of your documents and this the title is required, and the document language is required. By default, we don't just automatically type that in. So that's something that you'll need to do it will take no time at all. Images, so you see they're broken down into different sections. It's meaning this little YCP logo. I obviously don't have alt text for that so often make sure to give it a name so the screen reader can read out that it's, in fact, a YCP logo. I'll continue to scroll down. It's saying it passed, but it still needs headings, so that's why there's a little exclamation point. If you watched any of the Microsoft Office accessibility videos that I created it, it talks about headings. Meaning like heading 1, heading 2, and heading 3. It's the way you structure your documents of any kind of assistive technology tool such as a screen reader can read it out correctly. And so that the user can use the tab key to jump to those important sections. It could still be read but not clearly. So it's suggesting that's why it's a green check but yet a little exclamation point that you should go through that and we will on this document. There's another section for tables which there is one in here, and that's the weekly breakdown of assignments. Obviously, it's not tagged correct links that will have to go through them. The next area that I had an issue with is the content. Obviously, I have color issues that you want to make sure it's contrasty enough for those with low vision or color blind issues. Also fine print. So again if something's too small maybe it was like eight-point size font it's suggesting you make it larger. Again, it's not a huge problem; that's why it's the green check and the little exclamation point. Something to think about and to consider fixing up. Which we will do. So, as you can see it has a really nice breakdown color coded, so you know what you need to go through and fix. Really nice tool. So in the next video, what I would like to do is go through and break it down. We'll go through the document giving it a title and also fixing your headings. And then in another video, I'll go over how to go through the headings and fixing the table.

Who Grackle Helps

Anyone with an APS.edu account creating Google documents, including APS students, teachers, and staff can use Grackle and quickly learn to make our Google files accessible.

If you are sharing documents with students, classmates, and colleagues, you can use Grackle to make sure your Google files are accessible so that everyone in APS and our community can equitably access information.

How Grackle Works

Note: You must use the Google Chrome browser to use Grackle.

  1. Select your Google file (Docs, Sheets, or Slides).
  2. Click the "Add-ons" menu.
  3. Select Grackle Docs/Sheets/Slides.
  4. Click "Launch."
  5. Click "Sign in with Google."
  6. Choose your APS.edu account.
  7. Allow Grackle access to your Google Account.
  8. A sidebar will open up on the right and will identify errors and warnings in each section (Document, Images, etc.).
  9. Click on each error and warning for guidance on how to resolve each issue.
  10. Clicking the “Here” button on any flagged item will take you to that item in your document to review.
  11. Address each issue one at a time throughout the document.
  12. Select the “Re-Check” button at the top of the window when you have completed each task to receive an updated report.
  13. Continue to revise until all checks have passed.

Definitions

Errors
Errors are indicated by red circles. You must correct errors to make your document ADA compliant. Click the section with the red X beside the issue and edit the section.
Warnings
Warnings are indicated by yellow circles. You should correct warnings to make your document ADA compliant. Click the section with the green check mark with the red exclamation point and edit the section.
Successes
A green circle indicates that the section is compliant, so no additional remediation is needed.
This page was last updated on: April 29, 2019.