Creating accessible documents
Word
Accessibility Checker
If you are using Microsoft Word, you can run the Accessibility Checker before sharing your document.
Select the Review tab, then Check Accessibility.
Blackboard Ally
When you upload a Word document to Moodle, Blackboard Ally will check the accessibility of your document and provide guidance on how to fix any accessibility issues. Blackboard Ally will also provide alternative formats for Word documents.
Resources
Excel
Accessibility Checker
If you are using Microsoft Excel, you can run the Accessibility Checker before sharing your spreadsheet.
Select the Review tab, then Check Accessibility.
Resources
PowerPoint
Accessibility Checker
If you are using Microsoft PowerPoint, you can run the Accessibility Checker before sharing your presentation.
Select the Review tab, then Check Accessibility.
Blackboard Ally
When you upload a PowerPoint file to Moodle, Blackboard Ally will check the accessibility of your document and provide guidance on how to fix any accessibility issues. Blackboard Ally will also provide alternative formats for PowerPoint files.
Accessibility tips
- Always use PowerPoint layouts as these are structured to be accessible
- The University PowerPoint templates are fully accessible
- Arrange items on the page in the correct order for screen readers
- Use sufficient white space
- Avoid using PowerPoint's inbuilt animations
- Avoid using built-in action buttons and other shapes as navigation
- If using charts, provide alt text
- Avoiding using PowerPoint to show instructional processes, i.e., using software, as this can result in a large number of shapes and images being used, all of which require alt text
- If embedding video in your presentation, make videos accessible to visually impaired and hearing-impaired users.
- Subtitles typically contain a transcription (or translation) of the dialogue.
- Closed captions typically also describe audio cues such as music or sound effects that occur off-screen.
- Video description means audio-narrated descriptions of a video's key visual elements. These descriptions are inserted into natural pauses in the program's dialogue. Video descriptions make videos more accessible to individuals who are blind or visually impaired.
- If you are uploading your presentation to Moodle, do not convert to PDF, upload your presentation in .ppt or .pptx. Blackboard Ally checks all PowerPoint presentations uploaded to Moodle.
Resources
PDF Documents
PDFs make your content harder to find, use, and maintain. It is difficult for users to customise them for ease of reading, and often they do not work very well with assistive technologies like screen readers.
Reading Lists @ Glasgow
Instead of using scanned PDFs, the Reading Lists service is an easy, accessible, and copyright-compliant way to provide material for your course. The service aims to obtain essential/core texts in electronic formats and to digitise key chapters using the Copyright Licensing Agency’s HE scanning license.
The Library provides a list creation service, where reading lists can be added to the service on your behalf.
Scanned documents
Scanned documents can be of poor quality and are images; the text within them is not accessible unless Optical Character Recognition (OCR) has been run on the document.
Use Adobe Acrobat to run OCR on the PDF.
You can also use OneNote in Microsoft 365 to copy text from an image and paste it elsewhere. Use this to help you add alternative text or an accompanying text description to a scanned image.
Create an accessible PDF
- Create an accessible Word document
- Select File > Info > Properties (on the right-hand side), select Show All Properties and enter a title as a minimum.
- Export as PDF/XPS
- Select File > Export > Create PDF/XPS
- Under Options ensure Document structure tags for accessibility is selected
- Choose your save location then select Publish
Blackboard Ally
When you upload a PDF document to Moodle, it will check the accessibility of your document and provide guidance on how to fix any accessibility issues. Blackboard Ally will also provide alternative formats for PDF documents.