Digital Accessibility

Word

Accessibility Checker

If you are using Word for Office 365 you can run the Accessibility Checker before sharing your document.

Select the Review tab then Check Accessibility.

Anthology Ally

When you upload a Word document to Moodle, Anthology Ally will check the accessibility of your document and provide guidance on how to fix any accessibility issues. Anthology Ally will also provide alternative formats for Word documents. 

Resources

• Microsoft guidance - making your word documents accessible to people with disabilities
• Making Word documents accessible (Word, 0.6MB)

Excel

Accessibility Checker

If you are using Excel for Office 365 you can run the Accessibility Checker before sharing your spreadsheet.

Select the Review tab then Check Accessibility.

Anthology Ally

Anthology Ally does not currently check Excel spreadsheets in Moodle for accessibility issues or provide alternative formats for Excel spreadsheets in Moodle. 

Resources

• Microsoft guidance - making your Excel documents accessible to people with disabilities
• Making Excel Workbooks Accessible (Word, 0.5 MB)

PowerPoint

Accessibility Checker

If you are using PowerPoint for Office365, you can run the Accessibility Checker before sharing your presentation.

Select the Review tab then Check Accessibility.

Anthology Ally

When you upload a PowerPoint file to Moodle,  Anthology Ally will check the accessibility of your document and provide guidance on how to fix any accessibility issues. Anthology 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 inbuilt animations
• Avoid using inbuilt 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 description makes video 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.  checks all PowerPoint presentations uploaded to Moodle.

Resources

• Making your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities - Microsoft guidance
• Making PowerPoint presentations accessible (Word, 0.7 MB)

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

Using the Reading Lists service is an easy, accessible, and copyright-compliant way to provide material for your course rather than using scanned PDFs. The service aims to obtain essential/core texts in electronic formats and to digitise key chapters using the Copyright Licensing Agency’s HE scanning licence.

The Library provides a list creation service, where reading lists can be added to the service on your behalf.

• Reading Lists @ Glasgow - staff guide

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.

• Adobe: Recognise text in a single document

You can also use OneNote in Office365 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.

• Microsoft: Copy text from pictures and file printouts using OCR in OneNote

Create an accessible PDF

1. Create an accessible Word document
2. Select File > Info > Properties (on the right-hand side) select Show All Properties and enter a title as a minimum.
3. 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

Anthology Ally

When you upload a PDF document to Moodle,  will check the accessibility of your document and provide guidance on how to fix any accessibility issues. Anthology Ally will also provide alternative formats for PDF documents.

Resources

• Workflow for creating accessible PDFs - Adobe guidance
• Accessible PDFs - GOV.UK advice
• Creating PDF guidelines from Adobe