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All about tables: creating accessible tables in MS Word, PowerPoint, PDF, and in Canvas

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Tables can be a good way to communicate data trends in an accessible way. Try to avoid creating super complex tables as these are less understandable for people using screen readers. It can be beneficial to break complex tables into two or more simple table. To create accessible tables in your favorite application, look for the way to specify header cells, one of the essential features of an accessible table. An accessible table also should include a caption describing it or a heading about the table directly above it.
Here are some descriptions of creating accessible tables in different apps:
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MS Word

  • To create an accessible data table in MS Word go to ‘Insert’ > ‘Table’ and draw out the table’s rows and columns.
  • header cell 1
  • header cell 2
  • header cell 3
  • header cell 4
  • col 1, row 2 data
  • col 2, row 2 data
  • col 3, row 2 data
  • col 4, row 2 data
  • col 1 row 1
  • col 2, row 3
  • col 4, row 3
  • col 4, row 3 data
  • Select the table and then click on the ‘Table Design’ widget. Enter the name of your header cells in the first row and make sure ‘Header Row’ is checked in the table Design settings.

Check out this How to Make Tables Accessible in MS Word video for more information and tips to make the tables accessible.

MS PowerPoint

  • To create an accessible data table in MS PowerPoint go to ‘Insert’ > ‘Table’ and draw out the table’s rows and columns.
  • header cell 1
  • header cell 2
  • header cell 3
  • header cell 4
  • col 1, row 2 data
  • col 2, row 2 data
  • col 3, row 2 data
  • col 4, row 2 data
  • col 1 row 1
  • col 2, row 3
  • col 4, row 3
  • col 4, row 3 data
  • Select the table and then click on the ‘Table Design’ widget. Enter the name of your header cells in the first row and make sure ‘Header Row’ is checked in the table Design settings.

Check out this Table Accessibility in PowerPoint video for more information and tips to make the tables accessible in a presentation.

 

Acrobat PDF

  • With PDFs, it’s best to correct table issues in the original source document that the PDF came from (like MS Word). If you don’t have access to the original source document, you can go ahead and fix the table in the PDF.
  • A common issue with tables in PDFs is not having true table header cells. To fix you can go to the Tags panel and manually change the <TD> into <TH> for each header cell.
  • Another issue with tables in PDFs is that the format cannot handle cells that span more than one column. So, You’ll need to redo your tables to have no merged or column spanning cells or else you’ll get an error in the accessibility checker. However, other formats like HTML can handle slightly more complex accessible tables. You can use HTML tables in Canvas course pags.
  • You may find that your table has regularity issues. Table regularity means that some rows have extra cells as compared to the normal amount of cells per row. You can fix table regularity issues by finding the rows with too many cells and deleting those with too many. Before deleting, be sure to move any content in those cells to the correct cells that they should be in.

Check out this How to Make Complex Tables Accessible in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC video for more information and tips to make the tables accessible in a PDF.

 

Canvas

  • To insert a table in a Canvas course pages, Edit a course page to get access to the table maker.
  • Click on the arrow next to the table icon and then choose ‘Table’.
  • Use the table tool to draw out your rows and columns.
  • A limitation of the Canvas table maker is that you can’t specify true table header cell in the editor, so you’ll need to go the code view and change the normal <td> cells into <th> cells.
  • Or you can use the accessibility checker in Canvas to sport and correct the table without a header row. Under ‘Set Table Header’ choose ‘Header row’ and then click ‘Apply’. Behind the scenes it changes the <td> cells into <th> cells. You could go to code view and copy and paste your newly created table code into a local .html text file if you want. Below is a screen of specifying a header row in the accessibility checker.
    Screenshot of specifying a header row for a table in Canvas.
  • The checker will also let you know if a table needs a caption and prompt you to add it. If the table has an H2 heading directly before it, then you don’t need a duplicate caption. Below is a screen showing the option to ad a caption to a table in the accessibility checker.

Screenshot showing the option to ad a caption to a table in the accessibility checker.

General accessibility tips for Canvas course creators

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I have been using the Canvas LMS since 2016 when Ohio State switched the ‘Carmen’ learning platform from being powered by D2L to use the Instructure Canvas platform. I want to get people interested in doing accessible practices in their online Canvas courses and raise awareness of the upcoming deadline: April 24, 2026, when all materials produced by public universities should be accessible, according to the new ADA Title II regulations. I think it will take all faculty and staff at universities working together to meet that deadline. – Jon, 9/24/24

Canvas course material accessibility presentation for the Ohio Canvas User Group Conference

General accessibility tips for Canvas course creators fact sheet topics

[ General accessibility tips for Canvas fact sheet ePub coming soon ]

Here are some general web accessibility principals that Canvas course creators can keep in mind to make their course pages more accessible. These principles also apply to working with webpages in general, since course pages are in HTML format. Learning management systems and content management systems use similar WYSIWYG editors for updating the HTML content of a webpage.

TOC

Accessibility testing:

Check your course page with the built-in accessibility checker in the RCE (rich text editor):

Some learning management platforms, like Canvas, have built-in accessibility checkers. The one in Canvas can be found in the options of the course page rich text editor (RCE). To use it, edit a course page and click the accessibility checkers icon. An issues panel appears on the right side of your screen and will walk you through each issue and give you the opportunity to fix them. If an image is missing alt text, the checker will let you enter an alt description.
See this how to use the Accessibility Checker in the RCE article for more information. Below is a screen of the accessibility checker finding missing alt text.
Sscreenshot the accessibility checker in the RCE finding missing alt text.

Check your course page with the WAVE accessibility checker:

The WAVE tool is available as a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox and will allow you to check your webpage for accessibility issues in one-click. The checker will show you exactly where the issues are in the code and provide advice on how to correct them.

Images

Add alternative text descriptions to your images:

Alternative text will describe the image to screen reader users and be seen by sighted users if the image can’t load. Focus on the meaning or purpose of the image rather than trying to describe every detail. In the Canvas LMS while editing a course page we can click on an image, click on the ‘Image Options’ button that pops up, and enter alt text in the Image Options pane that appears on the right-side of our screen.
Screenshot showing adding alt text in the Canvas RCE.
See this article about alt text and display options for images added with the RCE for more information.

Headings

Use headings properly:

Be sure to separate your content into sections, especially in longer articles, and use headings correctly. In the editor, it may appear that headings are like font sizes, but they are more for structural usage. You shouldn’t pick a lower heading size because you like the font size of it. Headings need to be properly nested in a heading structure where you shouldn’t skip heading levels. For example, you shouldn’t go from an H1 to an H3. That H3 should be an H2 to be properly nested in the heading structure. While editing a course page, you can change highlighted text to a heading by clicking on the ‘Paragraph’ menu in the rich text editor. Under that menu you’ll find several heading level options.
Screenshot showing that there are several heading level options under the Paragraph menu in the RCE in Canvas.

Here are some articles about using headings in the RCE:

Use of color

Make sure all text has sufficient color contrast:

Small or regular-sized text should have a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 and large text (bold and 18px or higher or normal and 24px or higher) should have a contrast ratio of a least 3:1. You can use the WebAIM Contrast Checker tool or the Colour Contrast Analyzer tool to find the color contrast ratio. Also, make sure no content or visuals rely on color alone to communicate meaning. Use other ways to differentiate visuals to aid color-blind users.
You can find out more about adjusting color contrast in this Color Contrast in Canvas article. This Adjusting color contrast with the accessibility checker article is another good resource.

Make sure your hyperlinks are descriptive and not just ‘click here’ links

Making link text more descriptive helps give context about where the link goes to. You could instead say, click here to learn more about (the subject…). Links should make sense out of context so if screen reader users land on them they will know where they go. Short phrases such as “click here,” “more,” “click for details,” are ambiguous when read out of context. Screen readers have key shortcuts that can jump between links in a page and using the tab key jumps between focusable objects like links & buttons. So, a screen reader user may not have read nearby text that would give a short ‘click here’ more context. You should include the context withing the link text itself.
See the Introduction to Links and Hypertext guidance from WebAIM for more information about writing descriptive hyperlinks.

Tables

Make sure you only use tables for tabular data:

Tables should only be used to show numerical data. They shouldn’t be used for layout like organizing out parts of the page into columns. In the late 1990s some designers used table-based layout which wasn’t an accessible practice and not responsive to smaller screens.
See this inserting tables using the Rich Content Editor article to learn more about working with data tables in Canvas.

Make sure your data tables have a header row specified:

Each label on a column should be a true header cell TH instead of a regular cell TD. In Canvas you can tell that something is a header cell by clicking in the cell while editing the post. Below the table if it says ‘TH’ in the tag tree it’s a header cell. For example, the tag tree at the bottom of the editor might say: ‘TABLE > THEAD > TR > TH’. This is in the lower left side of the editing window. If you know HTML you could also switch to the code view and check the first row’s cell tags. They should be TH tags rather than TD.

Below is an example of a table created in the Canvas RCE where a header row has been specified. Notice the different styling of the first row. Screenshot of a table in Canvas that has had a header row specified.
The RCE table editor doesn’t allow you to specify header cells. You have to use the accessibility checker in the RCE to do that. It will analyze the table you created and give you an opportunity to specify a header row. Here is a screen of specifying a header row with the accessibility checker.
Screenshot of specifying a header row for a table in Canvas.

The accessibility checker will ask you to add a caption to your table. If you already have a descriptive heading immediately above the table, an additional caption isn’t required.

Avoid using complex tables:

You should avoid using complex tables because they can be challenging to make accessible and confusing to navigate for screen reader users. It may be better to convert a large complex table into two or more simple tables.
See WebAIM’s article about Creating Accessible Tables for more information.

 

Additional resources about online course accessibility:

Beginner’s Accessibility with the Rich Content Editor
How to use the Accessibility Checker in the RCE
Color Contrast in Canvas – an article about adjusting color contrast in the RCE.
Adjusting color contrast with the accessibility checker  – a good resource on fixing color contrast issues in Canvas course pages.
Inserting tables using the Rich Content Editor  – an article about working with data tables in Canvas.

General accessibility tips for blog post authors

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Here are some general web accessibility principals that blog post authors can keep in mind to make their posts more accessible. These principles also apply to working with webpages in general. Blogging software and content management systems use similar WYSIWYG editors for updating the HTML content of a webpage.

Accessibility testing

Check your page with an accessibility checker like WAVE:

The WAVE tool is available as a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox and will allow you to check your webpage for accessibility issues in one-click. The checker will show you exactly where the issues are in the code and provide advice on how to correct them.

Alt text

Add alternative text descriptions to your images:

Alternative text will describe the image to screen reader users and be seen by sighted users if the image can’t load. Focus on the meaning or purpose of the image rather than trying to describe every detail. See the Adding alternative text to images in a WordPress post for details of how to add alt text to an image in your Blog.

Headings

Use headings properly:

Be sure to separate your content into sections, especially in longer articles, and use headings correctly. In the editor, it may appear that headings are like font sizes, but they are more for structural usage. You shouldn’t pick a lower heading size because you like the font size of it. Headings need to be properly nested in a heading structure where you shouldn’t skip heading levels. For example, you shouldn’t go from an H1 to an H3. That H3 should be an H2 to be properly nested in the heading structure.
See WebAIM’s article about Semantic structure and headings for more information.

Use of color

Make sure all text has sufficient color contrast:

Small or regular-sized text should have a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 and large text (bold and 18px or higher or normal and 24px or higher) should have a contrast ratio of a least 3:1. You can use the WebAIM Contrast Checker tool or the Colour Contrast Analyzer tool to find the color contrast ratio. Also, make sure no content or visuals rely on color alone to communicate meaning. Use other ways to differentiate visuals to aid color-blind users.

Links

Make sure your hyperlinks are descriptive and not just ‘click here’ links:

Making link text more descriptive helps give context about where the link goes to. You could instead say, click here to learn more about (the subject…). Links should make sense out of context so if screen reader users land on them they will know where they go. Short phrases such as “click here,” “more,” “click for details,” are ambiguous when read out of context. Screen readers have key shortcuts that can jump between links in a page and using the tab key jumps between focusable objects like links & buttons. So, a screen reader user may not have read nearby text that would give a short ‘click here’ more context. You should include the context withing the link text itself.
See the Introduction to Links and Hypertext guidance from WebAIM for more information about writing descriptive hyperlinks.

Tables

Make sure you only use tables for tabular data:

Tables should only be used to show numerical data. They shouldn’t be used for layout like organizing out parts of the page into columns. In the late 1990s some designers used table-based layout which wasn’t an accessible practice and not responsive to smaller screens.

Make should your data tables have a header row specified:

Each label on a column should be a true header cell TH instead of a regular cell TD. In WordPress you can tell that something is a header cell clicking in the cell while editing the post. Below the table if it says ‘TH’ in the tage tree it’s a header cell. For example, the tag tree at the bottom of the editor might say: ‘TABLE > THEAD > TR > TH’. This is just above where it says: “Word count”.

Avoid using complex tables:

You should avoid using complex table because they can be challenging to make accessible and confusing to navigate for screen reader users. It may be better to convert a large complex table into two or more simple tables.
See WebAIM’s article about Creating Accessible Tables for more information.

 

Additional resources about blog post accessibility:

Tips of producing accessible videos

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How to produce accessible videos:

  • Make sure videos have quality audio, displayed time lengths, accurate closed captions & downloadable text transcripts. If the audio quality is low, captioning services may find it difficult to accurately transcribe the video.
  • Obtain closed captions from services like Otter.ai, from YouTube Studio, or from Zoom. Edit the captions text file for accuracy, fixing typos. Here is a blog post about Using YouTube Studio to obtain captions for your video.
  • Create text transcripts from the captions and include audio descriptions of visuals used in the presentation. If you used Zoom, you may already have been provided with a separate transcript file. The main difference is that captions include timings and are more machine readable than transcripts. Text transcripts are more human readable and usually don’t include timings. See how to download captions from YouTube that can be converted into transcripts in this blog article about YouTube captions. If downloading captions from YouTube to convert to transcripts, be sure to choose the ‘remove timestamps’ option.

Benefits of including closed captions and text transcripts:

  • Providing good audio quality and accurate captions not only improves user experience for everyone but can be especially important for individuals with total or partial hearing loss.
  • Providing accurate video transcripts allows screen readers to access information that deaf-blind participants cannot access through audio or video alone.
  • Providing multiple ways to access content supports different learning styles and removes barriers to access. For example, just posting a video without captions would leave out people with hearing disabilities. But by adding closed captions and transcripts, we can lift that barrier to access making the video content available to a wider audience.

Uploading captions to video hosting services:

  • Most video hosting services accept captions in .srt format. Be sure to export to that format from your captioning service. Captions are different from text transcriptions in that they contain machine readable timings. A video hosting service uses those timings to sync with video playback.
  • If using MediaSite, choose: ‘Manually upload a captions file’ under Audio Transcriptions under the Delivery sub-tab. Then choose your captions file to upload. Then choose the language of the captions file (usually English). See the Captioning your Presentation article for more information about MediaSite captioning options. Below is a screen of adding a captions file to a video in MediaSite.
    Screenshot of uploading a captions files and choosing a captions language in MediaSite
  • If using YouTube, you can use YouTube Studio to auto-generate captions (see this blog post for more info). Or you can upload a captions file that you obtained another service, like Otter.ai.
    In YouTube Studio, From the left menu, select Subtitles. Then choose the video you want to edit. Click ADD LANGUAGE and select your language. Then under "Subtitles", click ADD to upload a captions file. Find out more in this YouTube help article about captioning or in this blog post.
    Automated YouTube captions are a good starting point, but should be edited for automated language issues. The captions can be downloaded and annotated for use as a transcript. See the CFAES Webinar Accessibility article for more information. YouTube Studio provides the capability to edit your captions in-app and so do other services like Otter.ai. Below is a screen of finding auto generated captions in YouTube Studio. Screenshot showing where to find auto generated captions in YouTube Studio.

All about alt text: specifying alt text in MS Word, PowerPoint, PDF, and in Canvas.

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Providing alternative text descriptions for images used in a document is an essential part of digital accessibility. Alt text can be entered in similar ways in applications like MS Word, PowerPoint, Acrobat PDF, and in Canvas. The alt text should relate to the purpose of the image rather than be a complete description of everything in the photo. Try to keep the alt text brief to around 125 characters as some accessibility checkers will flag alt text that’s too long as an issue. Sometimes it can be difficult to decide if a particular image should have alt text. This alt text decision tree app can help. It can also let you know if an image is considered a complex image and needs an even longer description.

Here are some tips for adding alt text in some of your favorite apps: MS Word, PowerPoint, Acrobat PDF, and in Canvas.

TOC

MS Word

 

Checking for accessibility issues in a Word document is easy with the built-in accessibility checker that’s similar to the ones in other MS Office applications. The checker can easily spot instances of missing alt text.
To run the accessibility checker that’s built into Word:

  • Go to ‘File’ > ‘info’
  • Under ‘inspect document’ choose “Check accessibility”. The accessibility panel appears the right side of your document showing any issues.
  • While some issues have an easy fix, others may require ure more skill to correct. References are provided to assist in looking up how to fix issues.
  • To correct missing alt text issues, click on the Picture number that’s missing it in the accessbility issues list. Then choose ‘Add a description’ or ‘Mark as decorative’ if the picture is just of decoration.

In newer versions of Word, alt text is automatically generated when a picture is imported. You can check if the alt description is accurate enough by right-clicking on the image and choosing ‘View Alt Text’

You can learn more about MS Word document accessibility in the Office document accessibility BuckeyeLearn courses.

MS PowerPoint

Checking for accessibility issues in a PowerPoint presentation is easy with the built-in accessibility checker that’s similar to the ones in other MS Office applications.

To run the accessibility checker that’s built into MS PowerPoint:

  • Go to ‘File’ > ‘info’.
  • Under ‘inspect document’ choose “Check accessibility”. The accessibility panel appears the right side of your document showing any issues.
  • While some issues have an easy fix, others may require ure more skill to correct. References are provided to assist in looking up how to fix issues.
  • To correct missing alt text issues, click on the slide number that’s missing it in the accessbility issues list. Then choose ‘Add a description’ or ‘Mark as decorative’ if the picture is just of decoration.

In newer versions of PowerPoint, alt text is automatically generated when a picture is imported. You can check if the alt description is accurate enough by right-clicking on the image and choosing ‘View Alt Text’.

You can learn more about MS PowerPoint document accessibility in the Office document accessibility BuckeyeLearn courses.

Acrobat PDF

  • To find missing alt text issues in a PDF document, run the accessibility checker by going by clicking ‘Prepare for accessibility’ and then ‘Check for accessibility’. A list of issues comes up in the accessibility panel on the right.
  • For missing alt text issues, you can right-click on the issue and choose ‘Fix’. A box pops up allowing you to add alt text to each figure that is missing it. The alt text should relate to the purpose of the image rather than be a complete description of everything in the photo. Try to keep the alt text brief to around 125 characters. If the image is just of decoration instead of meaningful content, check the ‘Decorative figure’ box.

 

You can learn more about PDF document accessibility in the PDF accessibility BuckeyeLearn courses.

Canvas (Carmen or Scarlet)

  • Canvas course pages have a built-in accessibility checker in the rich text editor that’s available when you edit a course page. The checker can find missing alt text in a page and allow you to add some.
  • Edit a course page to get access to the checker. Click the checker icon to begin running a check.
  • A box on the right pops up allowing you to add alt text for any images missing it. If the image is just of decoration instead of meaningful content, check the ‘Decorative figure’ box.

 

You can learn more about Canvas course accessibility from this Carmen Canvas accessibility checklist from EHE.

Using Acrobat to make a PDF output from Adobe Express accessible

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Adobe Express is a great product with lots of useful and amazing design features. Unfortunately, it doesn’t currently produce tagged PDFs, so you’ll need to do some work in Adobe Acrobat Pro to make your PDF document fully accessible.

You can find out more about using Adobe Express itself at: https://it.osu.edu/adobe/

Here are some steps to take in Acrobat after exporting a PDF from Express:

  • First run the accessibility checker in Acrobat Pro by clicking ‘Prepare for accessibility’ and then ‘Check for accessibility’. A list of issues comes up in the accessibility panel on the right.Screenshot of where to launch the checker in Adobe Acrobat and the checker settings
  • Express doesn’t produce tagged PDFs so in Acrobat Pro you’ll need to right-click on the ‘tagged PDF failed’ issue and choose ‘Fix’. After the tagging process, you’ll notice other issues in the PDF.
    Screenshot of fixing the Tagged PDF Failed issue in the Acorbat accessibility panel results.
  • For missing alt text issues, you can right-click on the issue and choose ‘Fix’. A box pops up allowing you to add alt text to each figure that is missing it. The alt text should relate to the purpose of the image rather than be a complete description of everything in the photo. Try to keep the alt text brief to around 125 characters. If the image is just of decoration instead of meaningful content, check the ‘Decorative figure’ box.
    Screenshot of fixing a missing alt text issue in the Acorbat accessibility panel results.
  • While a lot of issues have an easy ‘Fix’ option, for some more complex you’ll need to do some research about how to fix and may need to modify things in the tags panel. For example, you may see a ‘heading nesting failed error’ that will require finding headings in the tags panel and updating them to the appropriate heading level to fit the document structure. If a heading skipped levels to be an <H3>, you could change it to be an <H2> in the tags panel, fixing the issues.
  • If you encounter a PDF with a lot of complex tag structure issues, be sure to save a copy of your original document so if the tag structure gets broken you have a backup to start over with.
  • Save your remediated PDF.

There is some more information about accessibility and Adobe Express in their VPAT. Hopefully in future versions additional accessibility improvements will be introduced. It would be great if a built-in accessibility checker can be added, similar to the one in MS Office applications and Adobe Acrobat. It would also be good to introduce an easy way to add alt text to images similar to what is available in Word and PowerPoint. Adding features like that would help Adobe Express stand out from competing products like Canva. For now, we’ll need to rely on using Acrobat to add accessibility to our Express PDFs.

You can learn more about PDF document accessibility in the PDF accessibility BuckeyeLearn courses.

Resources

Need more information about using Adobe Express?

Don’t have access to Acrobat Pro? Here are some other PDF apps that include accessibility checkers:

Document accessibility tips

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Using built-in accessibility checkers to find issues in documents

TOC

Many of work with digital documents in the course of our everyday work. But how do we make those documents accessible to the widest possible audience? A place to start is to get familiar with the accessibility checkers available in MS Office apps like PowerPoint and Word and the checker in Adobe Acrobat Pro. These checkers list accessibility issues in a document and provide advice about how to correct them.

Checking MS Word documents for accessibility

To check your MS Word document for accessibility, go to ‘File > Info > Check accessibility’ under ‘Inspect Document’.

The accessibility checking panel that pops up lists issues and provides information about how to fix them. Different issues are fixed in different ways.

Missing alt text for images is a common problem in MS Office documents. To add alternative text on an image in MS Word right-click on the photo and choose ‘View Alt Text’. Then enter your alt description of the photo in the field provided. If it’s a purely decorative image check ‘Mark as decorative’.

When you’re exporting to PDF from MS Word using ‘Save as’, it’s important to check ‘Document structure tags for accessibility’ in the options so it will export an accessible PDF.

You can learn more about MS Word document accessibility in the Office document accessibility BuckeyeLearn courses. Below is a screenshot of where to access the accessibility checker in MS Word. Screenshot of the accessibility checker in MS Word

Checking PDF documents for accessibility

Run the accessibility checker in Acrobat Pro by clicking ‘Prepare for accessibility’ and then ‘Check for accessibility’. A list of issues comes up in the accessibility panel on the right. Some issues have an easy ‘Fix’ option, while for some more complex you’ll need to do some research about how to fix and may need to modify things in the tags panel. For example, you may see a ‘heading nesting failed error’ that will require finding headings in the tags panel and updating them to the appropriate heading level to fit the document structure. If a heading skipped levels to be an <H3>, you could change it to be an <H2> in the tags panel, fixing the issues.

If you encounter a PDF with a lot of complex tag structure issues, be sure to save a copy of your original document so if the tag structure gets broken you have a backup to start over with.

While you can remediate accessibility in Acrobat Pro, it’s best to fix issues in the original source document, in the PowerPoint .ppt or Word .doc.

You can learn more about PDF document accessibility in the PDF accessibility BuckeyeLearn courses. Below is a screenshot of where to access the accessibility checker in Adobe Acrobat. Screenshot of the accessibility checker settings in Adobe Acrobat

Checking MS PowerPoint documents for accessibility

To check your MS PowerPoint presentation for accessibility, go to ‘File > Info > Check accessibility’ under ‘Inspect Presentation’.

The accessibility checking panel that pops up lists issues and provides information about how to fix them. Different issues are fixed in different ways.

Missing alt text for images is a common problem in presentations. To add alternative text on an image in MS PowerPoint right-click on the photo and choose ‘View Alt Text’. Then enter your alt description of the photo in the field provided. If it’s a purely decorative image check ‘Mark as decorative’.

When you’re exporting to PDF from PowerPoint using ‘Save as’, it’s important to check ‘Document structure tags for accessibility’ in the options so it will export an accessible PDF.

You can learn more about MS PowerPoint document accessibility in the Office document accessibility BuckeyeLearn courses. Below is a screenshot of where to access the accessibility checker in PowerPoint.
Screenshot of the accessibility checker in PowerPoint

Digital accessibility essentials: Basic digital accessibility for educators presentation

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Here are some links to my Digital accessibility essentials presenation that I presented to a group of educators in Extension on May 2, 2024:

The presentation covers the Whys of accessibility (empathy & compliance), the Hows of accessibility (how to use assistive technology), and the Whats of accessibility (what to do to ensure good digital accessibility). The Hows of accessibility section shows how people with visual disabilities use screen readers to consume digital content and highlights how to get started with screen reader testing.

The screen readers mentioned in the presentation are the traditional kind that read live text from websites and documents already on the user’s device. Below are some links to a new group of other apps the actually read text out in the environment to help people with visual disabilities.

Information about other assistive technologies

Here are some other tools and apps, different from traditional screen readers, that can help the visually impaired: https://business.bemyeyes.com/10-essential-accessibility-tools-apps-for-the-visually-impaired

Apps like TapTapSee, Google’s Lookout, SuperSense, or MS Seeing AI use a smartphone’s camera and voiceover capabilities to take a picture or video of anything in the environment and identify it with a voice in real time.

What to do to ensure good digital accessibility

The presentation covers using the accessibility checkers built into MS Office products like Word and PowerPoint to check the accessibility of our digital documents. It also covers how there are similar accessibility checkers in learning management systems like Canvas that can help use ensure good digital accessibility in our online courses. For those of us doing blog posting as part of our educational efforts, the WAVE tool, is essential. It’s an easy way to check webpages for accessibility issues and is available as a browser extension.

Scheduling Poll feature available in Outlook that’s similar to Doodle

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You might have used the service called Doodle to help find times for meetings before. Did you know that there’s a similar tool available in MS Outlook now?

Here’s how to create a poll in the Scheduling Poll in Outlook desktop. The article from Microsoft support walks you through the steps of creating Scheduling Poll.
You basically create a new email with the required attendees in the To field and the optional in the CC field. Then click on ‘New Scheduling Poll’ in the Message ribbon. It seems to work similar to Doodle.

Resources

Editing a SharePoint page and adding a Call to Action (CTA)

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TOC

How can you add a Call to Action web part widget to a SharePoint page?

You might wonder how can you add a Call to Action (CTA) web part to an MS SharePoint page?
To add a call to action web part widget to a Microsoft SharePoint page, you can follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the SharePoint page where you want to add the web part.
  2. Click Edit at the top right of the page to enter edit mode.
  3. Hover your mouse above or below an existing web part and you’ll see a line with a circled +, like this: +.
  4. Click +, and then select Call to action from the list of web parts.
  5. Start typing in the Add your call to action text here field.
  6. Click the Edit web part icon to access the Call to action webpart toolbox.
  7. Customize the web part properties, such as the image, the button label, the button link, and the alignment.
  8. Save the changes.

If you need more detailed instructions, you can watch this video that shows how to add a call to action button to a SharePoint page using the call to action web part. The video covers how to:

  • Add a call to action button to a SharePoint page using the call to action web part
  • Customize the text, label, alignment, and background image of the button

How to check your SharePoint page for accessibility?

You can check your SharePoint pages with the WAVE tool from WebAIM. It will point out a lot of accessibility issues. For convenience you can get a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, or MS Edge that allows you to check a webpage in one click.

Additional resources for editing SharePoint pages:

Videos about the Call to Action webpart in SharePoint

The SharePoint Call to Action Web Part – YouTube video
Dive into SharePoint Web parts: Call to action – YouTube video
How to add a Call to Action Button to a SharePoint page – YouTube video

Articles about the Call to Action webpart in SharePoint

Use the Call to action web part –
How to add an eye-catching Call To Action on SharePoint –

Articles about accessibility and SharePoint

Resources for creating accessible sites in SharePoint Online –
Add accessible content and links to a SharePoint Online site –