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Document Accessibility Guide

Instructions on how to use Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, and Microsoft PowerPoint to make files Accessible according to the Americans Disability Act.

Accessibility and Google Suite

In general, the Google Suite's accessibility tools are inferior to Microsoft products. Google suite's products do not have an accessibility checker, and the accessibility options vary between products (Documents, Sheets, Slides, etc.). 

Google Documents are more accessible than they were. Currently, Google Documents supports adding Headings to their documents for structure and adding alternative text to images. However, to make accessible tables you must install an add-on. Google Documents maintain accessibility formatting when converted to Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat. However, if a document contains a table it will not have any appropriate accessibility formatting in the PDF. 

Google Slides has extremely limited accessibility options. Currently, users can add alternative text to images, but there are no options to allow Headings, or accessible tables, and all accessible formatting is stripped out when converted either to Microsoft PowerPoint or to Adobe PDF. 

Google Documents

Adding Headings for Document Structure

  1. You can add structure to your file by adding Headings. There is a drop down option on the top bar labeled "Normal Text" just to the left of the font option. You can change headings by highlighting text and selecting one of the Heading options from the drop down menu. 

    Image

    Screenshot of a Google Documents file with a red border around the formatting option labeled "Normal Text".

  2. The Headings appear to the left side of the screen allowing the user to easily navigate throughout the document. 

Add Alternate Text to Image

  1. You can apply alternate text to images just as you would in Microsoft Word. Right click on the image and select Alt Text from the drop down menu.
  2. The Alternate Text menu will appear and you can add alternate text for the image and then click "Okay". Remember to keep the alternate text to a sentence or two. 

Google Slides

Google Slides has even very limited accessibility options, but it does allow you to add alternate text to images. 

Add Alternate Text to Image

  1. You can apply alternate text to images just as you would in Microsoft Word. Right click on the image and select Alt Text from the drop down menu. 
  2. The Alternate Text menu will appear and you can add alternate text for the image and then click "Okay". Remember to keep the alternate text to a sentence or two. 
Subjects: General Education