Creating accessible materials

For accessibility, it's important to make information available both visually and auditorily.

Unless you are producing something with narration, making something available auditorily means creating materials that can be consumed using a screen reader such as JAWS.

General principles

  • When you create graphics, use alt text or captions to describe the image (these can be read by a screen reader).
  • Set up materials so screen reader users can orient themselves:
    • Use the accessibility checkers in Microsoft products.
    • Use built-in headings (screen readers can read built-in headings, allowing the user to skim the material and more quickly find the needed information).
    • Use descriptive text for hyperlinks (as screen readers can read all the links in a page, descriptive text for hyperlinks allows the user to quickly navigate to what they are looking for).
    • Use simple table structure (see Microsoft materials below for guidance).
    • If your final product will be a PDF, make sure the source document is accessible (see the Accessible PDFs section for more details).

Microsoft resources on accessibility

Word

Excel

PowerPoint

Outlook

Accessible PDFs

Accessible graphics with text

Color vision deficiency is a common condition. If you create a graphic with text, make sure the color contrast between the text color and background color is readable for people who fall on this spectrum.

More resources