Introduction to the Course
This course is designed to provide learners with the knowledge and practical guidance needed to
create accessible documents in Microsoft Office and PDF formats. Whether you are new to document
accessibility or looking to strengthen your existing skills, this course will help you produce
content that is more usable for people with disabilities and more consistent with modern
accessibility expectations.
Accessible documents do not happen by accident. They are the result of using the right structure,
formatting, and authoring practices from the start. Throughout this course, you will learn how to
create documents that work better with assistive technologies, preserve meaning when converted to
other formats, and support a more inclusive experience for all users.
What This Course Covers
This course covers the core practices needed to create accessible content in Microsoft Word,
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and PDF. Major topics include:
- Microsoft Word: Using styles, headings, lists, tables, images, and document
properties correctly so documents are structured and readable by assistive technologies.
- Microsoft Excel: Organizing worksheet content clearly, naming tabs
meaningfully, formatting data as real tables, and reducing clutter that can make spreadsheets
difficult to understand.
- Microsoft PowerPoint: Using themes, slide layouts, placeholders, and
alternative text correctly so presentations have meaningful structure and accessible visual
content.
- PDF Accessibility: Preserving accessibility when converting Office files to
PDF, setting metadata and language, checking reading order, reviewing tags, and using Acrobat’s
accessibility tools effectively.
- Source-First Accessibility: Understanding why accessibility should be addressed
in the original Office document whenever possible, rather than relying on repair work after
export.
- Images and Alternative Text: Learning when images need descriptions, when they
should be treated as decorative, and how to provide appropriate alternative text across document
types.
- Document Structure and Navigation: Creating content that is easier to navigate
through headings, tables of contents, worksheet organization, bookmarks, and logical reading
order.
How Lessons Are Organized
Each section of the course focuses on a specific document type or stage in the accessibility
workflow. You will begin with foundational concepts and then move into the practical steps needed
to apply those concepts within the relevant application.
The course is organized to show not only what to do, but why it matters. In each module,
accessibility techniques are presented in the context of real authoring tasks, such as configuring
application settings, applying styles, inserting tables and images, and preparing files for export
or publication.
The modules are also designed to build on one another. The course begins with general principles
and then moves through Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF so that you can see how accessibility
decisions made at the source affect the final published output.
Getting the Most Out of the Course
To get the greatest value from this course, we recommend the following:
Practice as You Learn: Follow along in the applications themselves whenever
possible. Accessibility concepts become much clearer when you apply them directly in Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, or Acrobat.
