You are here: Home » Accessible Course Design, Alternate Format, Faculty Development & Support, Procurement, Teaching about Accessibility in Curriculum, Uncategorized » Accessibility Tools in Microsoft 365: Thinking Outside the Box

Accessibility Tools in Microsoft 365: Thinking Outside the Box

Presented at 1:45 pm in Virtual D on Thursday, November 20, 2025.

#41396

Speaker(s)

  • Karen McCall, Accessible Document Design Consultant and Educator, Karlen Communications

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 1-hr
  • Format: Lecture
  • Expertise Level: Beginner
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

This session is presented remotely. We think of accessibility tools either as end-user tools or as content author tools. For content authors with disabilities, we still think of the two modes combined. If we think outside the box, we discover that some of the accessibility tools can be used by remediation professionals to identify accessibility barriers that might be hidden. We can view accessibility tools in a different light.

Abstract

This session is presented remotely. There are several tools and features in Microsoft 365 applications that we think of as adaptive technology. However, these tools can be used to identify accessibility barriers in the remediation process. For example, we can use the Outline Pane in PowerPoint to identify potential accessibility barriers. We can use custom Style Sets in Word to quickly identify direct formatting of text. We can use the Immersive Reader tools to identify accessibility barriers in the text of content. We can utilize the tools in OneNote to enhance infographic accessibility. Many tools in Microsoft Office provide those who remediate and repurpose content tools that one doesn’t think of as tools for remediation. This session presents some of these types of tools. This will get us all thinking outside the box!

Keypoints

  1. Review accessibility features to improve accessibility audit process.
  2. Identify additional tools and features that can be used to audit and remediate digital content.
  3. Utilize tools and features in all Microsoft 365 desktop applications to optimize accessibility.

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Vision

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Alternate Format, Faculty Development & Support, Procurement, Teaching about Accessibility in Curriculum, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Karen McCall

Karen McCall, M.Ed. is the owner of Karlen Communications. She has been working in the field of accessible document design since 1999. She began her career in website accessibility and auditing and moved to accessible Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents in 2004. Karen is a Canadian delegate to the ISO 14289 or PDF/UA (Universal Access) and the ISO 32000 PDF committee. She has been a Microsoft MVP for Word (Most Valued Professional) since 2009 and a Microsoft Accessibility MVP since 2017 when this category of MVP was established. Karen has written several books on the topic of accessible document design for Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents as well as smaller publications with specific techniques for working with Office applications if you are using adaptive technology and/or the keyboard.