MCC Daily Tribune

Microsoft Office Accessibility Tips & Tricks

While working within Microsoft Office applications, remember the Fundamentals of Digital Content Accessibility from earlier this week. Microsoft Word and PowerPoint include tools for making your content accessible.

To add alt text to an image, simply right-click on the image and choose “Edit Alt Text.”
For links, remember to use descriptive link text. Highlight the link text, right-click, choose “Link,” then enter the URL in the “Address” field.
The ribbon under the Home tab includes options for changing font type, size, and color, creating ordered and unordered lists, and setting correct heading structure.

Tables
Remember that tables should be used to display tabular data and should not be used for visual content layout.

Always insert a table using Insert > Table
Define a header row by selecting the top row of your table, then clicking the Table Design tab and checking the box for “Header Row” on the Table Design ribbon.
Right-click on your table and choose “Table Properties”. On the Row tab, check the box to “Repeat as header row at the top of each page.”
Avoid using merged or split cells.

For more in-depth instructions on creating accessible tables, visit the following resources:

Document Language & Title
For a Word or PowerPoint file to be accessible, the Document Language and Title should be set.

Setting the document language:

In the web version of Office 365, go to the Review tab, click on the “Editor” dropdown menu, and select “Set Proofing Language.”
In the desktop application on Windows, go to the Review tab, click on the Language button, and select “Set Proofing Language.”
In the desktop application on a Mac, go to the Review tab, click on the Language button.

Setting the document title:

The document title cannot be edited in the web version of Office 365.
In the desktop application on Windows, click on File, select Info, then click on “Add a Title” under the Properties section in the upper-right.
In the desktop application on a Mac, click on File, select Properties, then click on the “Summary” tab.

Accessibility Checkers
Microsoft Office products include a built-in accessibility checker. To turn on the accessibility checker in most Microsoft Office products, click on the Review tab and select “Check Accessibility.” This will open a pane on the right-hand side of the screen that will display any errors or warnings. It may also provide some tips. In the web version of Office 365, you will need to manually click the “Recheck” button frequently as you create your document. In the desktop versions of Office products, you can check the box to “Keep accessibility checker running while I work,” and it will continuously update in real time.

MCC Templates
There are several Word templates available on the M Drive. These templates are accessible and use the MCC brand colors. For instructions on how to access these templates and add them to Word, visit the MCC Website Standards and Procedures site.

There are templates for PowerPoint presentations available on the MCC Brand Toolkit site.

Export as PDF
We highly recommend keeping Word Documents and PowerPoints in their original format, when at all possible. If, for any reason, you need to convert your Word Document or PowerPoint into a PDF, do not use the “Save As” option. Instead, you should use the Export option:

In the web version of Office 365, click on File, select Export, then “Download as PDF.”
In the desktop application on Windows, click on File, select Export, then “Create Adobe PDF.”
In the desktop application on a Mac, click on File, select “Save a Copy,” then change the file format to PDF.

Additional Resources

Jamie Hoover
Title II Digital Content Accessibility Committee
04/09/2026