In general, making documents such as Microsoft Office documents and PDFs accessible involves the same principles used in making an accessible webpage, including the following:

Create a page structure with proper heading styles.
Add headers and captions to tables.
Include alt text for all images.
Write descriptive link text.

When considering what documents to include as course materials, remember that assistive technologies (such as screen readers) are made to work with HTML, so that is the best format to use. Sometimes a different format is needed, which is the case for readings and documents used in assignments.

Module Content

This module covers

Information on choosing accessible textbooks
Scanning and choosing PDFs
Making an accessible Word document
Making an accessible Excel document
Making an accessible PowerPoint file

Updated February, 2020