Building Accessible Content

Making your MS Word documents accessible makes it easier for students with disabilities to use screen-reading software to navigate your content. There is an accessibility checker tool available in MS Word that will review your content, flag any accessibility issues that need to be fixed, and suggest how you can fix them. To manually launch the Accessibility Checker, select Review > Check Accessibility.

When creating a Word document, the best things you can do to increase the accessibility of that document are:

• Avoid using tables to present data if possible, but, if you must, then use table headers
• Use built-in title, subtitle and heading styles
• Create paragraph banners
• Add alt text to visuals
• Add full title accessible hyperlink text and ScreenTips
• Use accessible font format and colour
• Create accessible lists
• Adjust space between sentences and paragraphs
• Test the accessibility of your document by using the inbuilt Immersive Reader tool (View > Immersive Reader > Read Aloud)

For information on all of the above points, see this Microsoft support page. 

AHEAD also have this excellent resource about creating accessible MS Word Documents. 

Making your MS PowerPoint presentations accessible makes it easier for students with disabilities to use screen-reading software to navigate your content. There is an accessibility checker tool available in MS PowerPoint that will review your content, flag any accessibility issues that need to be fixed, and suggest how you can fix them. To manually launch the Accessibility Checker, select Review > Check Accessibility.

When creating accessible PowerPoint Presentations, remember to:

• Use an accessible presentation template
• Give every slide a title
• Set the reading order of slide contents
• Avoid using tables to present data, but, if you must, use table headers
• Add alt text to visuals
• Create full title accessible hyperlinks and add ScreenTips
• Use an accessible font format
• Use an accessible font colour
• Use captions, subtitles and alternative audio tracks in videos embedded in the presentation
• Save the presentation in a different format that can be easily read by a screen reader
• Test the accessibility of the presentation with a screen reader

For information on all of the above points, see this Microsoft support page. 

AHEAD also have this excellent resource about creating accessible MS PowerPoint presentations. 

Alt text stands for Alternative Text and is the short description added to non-decorative digital images. Screen readers read this alt text allowing it to convey visual content to the visually impaired user. 

The main points for writing effective alt text are:

• Keep it short
• Say that the image is an icon, illustration, photo, painting etc. if that is necessary to understand the image
• End the alt text sentence with a full stop to ensure the screen reader pauses after reading the alt text
• Consider the context and intention of the image because the same image used in different contexts will require different alt text appropriate to the article or webpage it is included in
• Decorative images do not need alt text, simply mark these are decorative and the screen reader will skip over them
• If an image fails to load the alt text will display and this is helpful for all users

Photo	Sample alt text
	Person walking along the tree lined pathway leading away from the TU Dublin Tallaght Campus main entrance.
	Students standing chatting beside a wall displaying the TU Dublin logo in large gold lettering.

Access this very comprehensive guide "Alt Text: What to Write" for further guidance and examples. 

If you are making podcasts or MP3 audio files available to your students, you must consider how accessible these formats are for any students without hearing or who have limited hearing. It is important that you provide alternative formats for these users that presents equivalent information.

The best way to do this is the provide a transcript of the audio content. If it is important to indicate in the transcript sound events that are included in the audio file, indicate these with brackets or parentheses e.g. [child laughing] or (ball bouncing).

If you include video content for students, it is important to ensure that content is accessible to all students. To do this:

• Add captions
• Include audio descriptions in the captions if the sounds effects in the video are important e.g. [children laughing]
• Provide a full text transcript that includes descriptions of important non-verbal elements such as the example above 
• Include controls for speed and volume adjustments
• Use accessible contrasting colours, backgrounds and text that is not placed on busy backgrounds
• Allow users to navigate your video using keyboard controls
• Ensure responsive design so that your video is accessible on all devices

If you are using ScreenPal to create video content, see the short articles "4 ways to create accessible video captions on ScreenPal" and "Colour Contrast for Player Accessibility" for guidance.