Build Accessible Content Across Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and PDF

Last updated on October 20, 2026

As an instructor, you’re probably juggling more file types than you realize: a syllabus in Microsoft Word, lecture slides in PowerPoint, or a scanned reading saved as a PDF. Each one plays a different role in your course, and each one comes with its own accessibility issues to consider.

We’ve already covered the fundamentals of accessible course design in our Incorporate Accessible Principles in Your Courses spotlight, including alt text, heading structure, and the basics of Universal Design for Learning. Those same principles apply here too, they just look a little different depending on which program you’re working in. 

This spotlight walks through when to use each file type and the small adjustments that make each one work better for all the students within your course. Guidance throughout is drawn from CTLD’s Instructional Accessibility Group’s (IAG) Make Documents Accessible and Make Presentations Accessible guides, which you can refer to for more detail than what’s covered here.

Best Practices

Before using any of these file types, remember that a Canvas page is usually the most accessible option. Students stay inside the LMS instead of clicking away to another program, and you avoid the unforeseen accessibility issues that can occur once content leaves Canvas, like a broken export, missing reading tags, or a file that won’t open on a student’s device. MS Word, PowerPoint, and PDFs still have their place, but treat a Canvas page as the default and use one of these formats only when a Canvas page truly won’t do the job. 

When should I use a Microsoft Word Doc, PowerPoint, or a PDF?

• MS Word
  • Works well for material you expect to revise over time, material students need to print, examples of completed student work, or as fillable worksheets and templates. 
• PowerPoint
  • Works well as visual reinforcement alongside a recorded lecture, as a way to showcase assignment examples, or as an interactive embed in Canvas.
• PDF
  • Works best for a final, fixed document you don’t plan to edit further, like a signed form or a flyer with a set layout, and only when another format truly won’t work.

When should I set them up?

• MS Word / PowerPoint
  • Apply heading styles, alt text, and table headers as you build the file from the start, rather than trying to fix them after it’s finished.
• PDF
  • Confirm the file is fully accessible before exporting it as a PDF. An accessible source file produces a mostly accessible PDF.

When should I not use them?

• MS Word
  • If the material needs an exact, unchanging layout across every device, like a form or handout with precise spacing, an MS Word document may not be the best option. In that case, build it accessibly in MS Word first, then export it as an accessible PDF for final distribution.
    • See IAG’s guide, Save Microsoft Word Documents as Accessible PDFs, to learn more.
• PowerPoint
  • Avoid using it as the sole way to teach brand-new content. If it’s carrying the full lecture on its own, a recorded video or Canvas page usually works better.
• PDF
  • Avoid creating a PDF just because it’s the default export, like for a syllabus or reading list where MS Word or a Canvas Page are better options.

Tips that apply across all three

A few accessibility issues show up across programs:

• Avoid Microsoft SmartArt. Screen readers can’t detect it, whether it’s in an MS Word document or a PowerPoint slide. Use a plain text-based list instead for the same kind of process or flowchart content.
• Use descriptive link text instead of a URL, the same way you would on a Canvas page.
• Give the file a descriptive name (and, for PDFs, a descriptive document title) rather than something generic, like “Week 3 Reading Guide” instead of “Untitled document 2.”

Let’s walk through it together

[Length 10:28; CC available]

Directions

Microsoft Word

MS Word tends to be the easiest of these formats to make accessible. The IAG’s guidance is that MS Word should be your go-to for creating accessible documents, while Adobe Acrobat is best reserved for remediating a PDF you already have, not for building new content.

• Use header rows for any tables (Table Design tab), so a screen reader announces the right column label for each cell.
  • Note: Word doesn’t have a reliable way to tag a header column, so if a table needs labels running down the side as well as across the top, Canvas or a properly tagged PDF is a better choice. 
  • For more information, see IAG’s guide called Create Accessible Charts and Tables in Microsoft Office.
• Add a table of contents for longer documents, built from your heading styles, so students can jump to a section instead of scrolling through the whole file.
• Avoid wrapping text around an image, since this scrambles the reading order a screen reader relies on.

Let’s walk through it together

Video: MS Word Doc Remediation Tutorial 

[Length 10:00; CC available]

To learn more, view the IAG’s guides:

• Use Headings, Lists, and Breaks to Build Accessible Structure in Microsoft Word
• Using the Accessibility Checker in Microsoft Office

PowerPoint

Building slides from scratch, instead of using PowerPoint’s built-in tools, causes most of the accessibility issues instructors run into.

• Use built-in themes and layouts. These automatically help prevent common issues like poor contrast, missing slide titles, and an incorrect reading order.
• Check your reading order. Screen readers read slide elements in the order they were added, not the order they visually appear on the slide. Use the Reading Order Pane (from the Review tab, click Check Accessibility) to review and adjust this, since it lists items top to bottom in the actual order they’ll be read.
  • Note: If your version of PowerPoint doesn’t have the Reading Order Pane yet, use the Selection Pane (from the Home tab, click Select) instead. Its order convention varies by operating system and version, so rather than relying on a fixed rule, move your slide title to one end of the list, then run the Accessibility Checker to confirm it’s actually reading first. 
  • See IAG’s guide, Adjusting Reading Order in PowerPoint, to learn more.
• Give every slide a descriptive title, even across a multi-slide sequence (for example, “Accessibility Problems, Part 1 of 3”).
• Use the built-in list tools rather than manually typed bullet characters, which screen readers won’t recognize as an actual list.
• Use a font size of at least 28 pt for all slide content, so it’s readable in a large room or on a small screen.
• Avoid inserting equations or formulas directly, since presentation software can’t render them accessibly. Present them as an image instead, with alt text that matches what you’d say out loud.

Let’s walk through it together

Watch the relevant video below for your operating system for a full walkthrough of running the Accessibility Checker and fixing issues on a sample presentation.

Video: PPT Remediation Tutorial (Mac) 

[Length 7:23; CC available]

Video: PPT Remediation Tutorial (Windows) 

[Length 5:48; CC available]

To learn more, view the IAG’s guides:

• Make Microsoft PowerPoint Accessible
• Using the Accessibility Checker in PowerPoint
• Create Accessible Presentations in Google Slides

PDF

Avoid PDFs when you can. PDF accessibility is complex, and prevention is usually easier than remediation.

If a PDF is genuinely necessary, check for these things:

• Selectable and searchable text: Try clicking and dragging to highlight text in the PDF. If nothing highlights and the search bar (Ctrl+F or Command+F) can’t find anything, the file is just an image and isn’t accessible yet. Optical character recognition (OCR) tools, including Adobe Acrobat, can convert a scanned image into real, selectable text.
• A defined language: This is set in the document’s metadata, alongside its title, so screen readers use the right pronunciation rules. 
• Logical tagging: Headings, paragraphs, and images all need proper tags so a screen reader can understand the document’s structure and reading order. Purely decorative elements should be tagged as artifacts so screen readers skip over them.

The best defense against PDF accessibility problems is prevention. If the original MS Word or PowerPoint file is accessible before you export it, the resulting PDF will usually carry most of that accessibility over. If you need to remediate an existing PDF, view the video below and reference the IAG’s guide on remediating PDFs in Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Let’s walk through it together

Video: PDF Remediation Tutorial 

[Length 11:47; CC available]

Checking your work

For an extra layer of review beyond the built-in checkers, Microsoft Copilot can look through a document or presentation and walk you through fixes step-by-step. See our tutorial, Use Copilot to Create Accessible Instructional Materials, for ready-to-use prompts. 

Want more support?

The Instructional Accessibility Group (IAG) offers guides and live trainings that go even deeper on these topics, including:

• MegaByte Working Sessions: 90-120 minute working sessions for a department or group of faculty, with or without training included.
• Access Checks: a review of your own course materials with guidance on next steps.

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