Microsoft Office products

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.

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.

Acrobat 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.

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.

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.

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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.

Document accessibility tips

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Using built-in accessibility checkers to find issues in documents

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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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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 –

Collaboration in MS Word through comments

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You might wonder, how can you collaborate on a project to do list in Microsoft Word with comments?
One of the advantages of your organization using Microsoft 365 is that you can collaborate on a project to-do list in Microsoft Word by using comments. Comments allow you to give feedback, ask questions, and collaborate with others on a document. To add a comment, select the text you want to comment on, then click on the Review tab and select New Comment. You can also use @mentions to tag specific people in your comments and assign tasks to them.
Here are the steps to add a comment and assign a task in Microsoft Word:

  1. Select the text you want to comment on.
  2. Click on the Review tab and select New Comment.
  3. Type your comment in the comment box.
  4. To assign a task, type @ followed by the person’s name you want to assign the task to. As you type various people you collaborate with from your organization should be auto-suggested.
  5. Select the checkbox next to Assign to and click Post.

The person you assigned the task to will receive an email notification, letting them know they need to take action. You can also view and reply to comments in the Comments pane on the right side of the screen.

I’ve used this method to get feedback from project team members and assign certain people to review verbiage in writing projects. It’s a very useful feature of Microsoft Word.