Accessibility Resource Guide

Overview

Accessibility Overview and Guide Breakdown

This section provides an overview to introduce you to the overall topic of the guide and how it is structured. Topics include an explanation of what accessibility is, why accessibility is important, a brief explanation of federal laws related to accessibility (ADA Title II and Section 508), and a breakdown of the sections within this guide.

Click the name of the topic below you would like to read more about or click a topic in the navigation bar on the left to go to a specific section of this guide.

AI Usage Note: Claude AI was used in portions of this guide to help make information more concise and readable.

What is Accessibility?

Accessibility refers to the design and creation of content, tools, and environments that can be used effectively by people of all abilities, including those with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive disabilities. In the context of digital materials, this means ensuring that documents, presentations, websites, and videos can be navigated and understood using assistive technologies such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, and alternative input devices. Accessibility isn't about creating separate versions of content for different users—it's about designing materials from the beginning so that the same document, slide deck, or video works for the widest possible range of people.

In higher education, this translates directly into equitable access to learning: when course materials are accessible, every student has the same opportunity to engage with the content, participate in discussions, and demonstrate their learning, regardless of how they interact with technology.

Why is Accessibility Important?

Each semester your course content reaches multiples students who may have different needs than you think. A student with low vision may rely on a screen reader to get through the syllabus, a student with a hearing impairment may rely on captions to learn from a lecture video, or a student who feel overwhelmed by a large amount of text on the screen may rely on clear headings to navigate through pages calmly. In fact, many other students - non-native English speakers, students studying on a phone between shifts at work, students in a library or doctor's office who need to read captions instead of listening to audio for a lecture video - also benefit from the same accessible design choices.

Accessibility isn't a separate task you do for a small group of students. It's a small number of habits that make your materials work better for everyone and shows that you care about them and their education.

The purpose of this guide is to provide you with an understanding of what is needed to comply with accessibility standards based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and 2.2 and Section 508.

Additional Resource:

How Section 508 Standards Benefit People with Disabilities by Section508.gov

ADA Title II and Section 508 Overview

ADA Title II

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) covers state and local government entities (public schools, libraries, transit agencies, city/county websites, etc.), prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities. In 2024, the DOJ added a specific digital accessibility rule under Title II, requiring covered public entities' websites and mobile apps to conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA — covering web pages, online forms, PDFs, and multimedia.

Section 508

Section 508 (of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973) applies specifically to federal government agencies — it requires that all electronic and information technology (ICT) created, procured, or used — websites, documents, software, PDFs — be accessible to people with disabilities. It also indirectly affects vendors selling ICT to federal agencies, who typically must demonstrate conformance through a VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) during procurement. The U.S. Access Board integrated WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA success criteria into the revised Section 508 standards in 2017, which took effect in January 2018.

Section Breakdown of Guide

Documents: This section provides links to text-based and video guides to assist in creating accessible documents for Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, and Adobe PDFs.
Text & Use of Color: This section provides links to information related to document headings and document structure, how to create descriptive hyperlinks, and how to use color in an accessible way.
Video Captions: This section provides links to tutorials on how to add captions to videos in Canvas Studio and Kaltura.
Additional Resources: This section provides various links related to accessibility that you may find useful and information related to The Walker Center for Teaching and Learning's PATH (Practical Accessibility for Higher Education) Canvas course.
Downloadable Checklist: This section provides a checklist that can be used as you work on making your content accessible.

Documents

Guides to Making Documents Accessible

This section provides linked resources related to the accessibility features built into Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Adobe PDF, showing how to structure files so that assistive technologies—like screen readers—can interpret and navigate them correctly. Topics include applying built-in styles in Microsoft Office software, how to make an accessible spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel, tagging PDFs, and using accessibility checkers within each program.

Why Does This Matter?

Course materials are often the first and most frequent point of contact students have with content. An inaccessible syllabus, lecture slide deck, or reading can create real barriers for students with visual, motor, or cognitive disabilities—directly affecting their ability to participate and succeed. Building accessibility into your document creation process from the start save significant time compared to retrofitting materials after a student requests accommodations.

Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel

Text-Based Guides

Understanding Document Structure: Headings (using Microsoft Word as an example) by Section508.gov
How to Add Alt Text to Images by Microsoft Support
How to Use Microsoft's Accessibility Checker by Microsoft Support

Video Tutorials

(Video Playlist) How to Make an Accessible Document in Microsoft Word by Section508.gov
(Video Playlist) How to Author and Test Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations for Accessibility by Section508.gov
(Video Playlist) How to Make an Accessible Spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel by Section508.gov

Adobe PDF

Text-Based Guides

Creating Accessible PDFs by Adobe

Video Tutorials

(Video Playlist) How to Test and Remediate PDFs for Accessibility Using Adobe Acrobat DC by Section508.gov

Text & Use of Color

Text & Use of Color

This section provides linked resources about how to build a logical document hierarchy using heading styles (rather than manually bolding or resizing text), how to write hyperlink text that describes its destination rather than generic phrases like "click here," how to ensure sufficient color contrast between text and background, and how to avoid using color alone to convey meaning (such as marking required fields in red text only).

Why Does This Matter?

These are some of the most common—and most easily fixed—accessibility issues in academic materials.

Proper heading structure allows screen reader users to navigate a document the way sighted users would visually scan it, rather than listening to the entire document linearly.
Descriptive hyperlinks matter enormously in higher education, where students frequently navigate long lists of readings and resources; screen reader users often pull up a list of just the links on a page, so "click here" becomes meaningless out of context.
Color contrast and non-color-dependent design support not only students with low vision or color blindness, but also students viewing materials on low-quality printouts, older monitors, or in bright environments—situations far more common than many instructors assume.

Text Headings and Content Hierarchy

Canvas

Structuring Pages in Canvas with Headings and Lists by Kent State University

Microsoft Word

Understanding and Adding Document Headings by Section508.gov

Adobe PDF

Edit Document Structure with Content and Tags Panel in Adobe Acrobat Pro

Hyperlinks

How to Write Descriptive Links and Hypertext (Hyperlinks) by Section508.gov

Color Contrast and Use of Color

Color Contrast

Color Contrast in Canvas by the University of Missouri - St. Louis
Using Accessible Font Format and Color by Microsoft Support

Online Color Contrast Checkers

Use of Color

Use of Color to Convey Meaning by Section508.gov

Video Captions

Video Captions

This section provides linked resources that explain generating, editing, and publishing captions for video content hosted in Kaltura and Canvas Studio.

Why Does This Matter?

The use of video is now incredibly common in modern higher education—lecture recordings, flipped classroom content, guest speaker segments, and asynchronous course delivery all rely heavily on video. Captions benefit not only students who are deaf or hard of hearing, but also English language learners, students studying in sound-sensitive environments, and anyone reviewing material for retention and note-taking.

Because auto-generated captions frequently misinterpret technical terminology, proper nouns, and discipline-specific jargon, faculty need to know how to review and correct them. Sometimes, even one misheard name, noun, or term can cause the student to misunderstand the point of the sentence or the topic overall.

How to Add Captions to Videos

Additional Resources

Additional Resources

This section provides additional links to resources you may find helpful or interesting related to accessibility.

Online Training Courses

The Walker Center for Teaching and Learning's PATH (Practical Accessibility for Higher Education) Canvas course: Learn more about techniques and tools to make your courses more accessible. (Please contact us at wctl@utc.edu if you are interested in this course.)
Microsoft Word & Accessibility Best Practices Online Course by Section508.gov
Section 508: What Is It and Why Is It Important? by Section508.gov

Other Useful Links

Downloadable Checklist

Downloadable Checklist

This section provides you will a downloadable PDF checklist that can be used as you develop new documents and check your current materials to ensure they are accessible. This checklist contains general items to check for throughout the types of material that have been covered in this guide.

Downloadable Accessibility Checklist