Breaking Down Digital Barriers: Enhancing Accessibility with Microsoft Tools in Education

Education’s main goal has always been about reaching and teaching all students, regardless of their backgrounds or abilities. As content continues the shift to digital modalities as a matter of preference for both faculty and students alike, this goal is sometimes hindered by the presence of digital barriers that may unintentionally exclude learners. These barriers in our teaching and learning process occur in many forms, from inaccessible digital content selected as core readings for our students,to tools and platforms that do not support assistive technologies necessary for an equitable learning experience for all students. 

While some schools and campuses have worked to incorporate basic accessibility considerations into course design, a major challenge for campuses is the significant expense of faculty time and the cost of supplemental tools to develop accessible content on the front end. Utilizing a proactive approach to course design building accessibility in from the beginning enhances the learning experience for students in the long run, as well as may save time and eliminate many or most last minute requests for accommodations. Yet, research indicates that most faculty are as yet greatly under-informed on the topics of Universal Design for Learning, digital accessibility, and compliance (Sanderson, Kessel, & Chen, 2022). 

To overcome these challenges, we will demonstrate for attendees such as faculty and instructional designers how they can leverage the full stack of the Microsoft platforms to improve digital accessibility in the teaching, learning, and research space. As Microsoft and the Office365 platforms are widely adopted across many school systems and University campuses, we propose that a cost savings on central IT as well as online learning and teaching and learning centers is an immediate win for campus administrators. Further, utilizing tools faculty and students already have familiarity with enhances comfort as well as willingness to learn small additionals steps within familiar tools and interfaces. 

In our session, we will start with the “why”, looking at why digital accessibility is important and relevant to the community, including first from a UDL perspective of equal access and second a brief overview of the legal considerations that drive the need for accessible content. We'll explore the different types of digital barriers that students may encounter and the impact these barriers can have on their learning outcomes within individual courses, on campus’ compliance issues, and on long-term student retention issues.

Next, we'll dive into the Microsoft platform helping to break down these barriers and make digital content more accessible and inclusive. This workshop will give you hands on experience to explore practical ways to enhance accessibility and inclusion in your classes. We will dive into Microsoft Office tools such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, as well as various other Microsoft tools that can support assistive technologies such as Teams, OneNote, and Stream. We will even touch on new solutions within Microsoft like Azure OpenAI Services, Windows 11, and Copilot. We'll cover features such as adding Alt Text to images; closed captioning options built-into the Microsoft platform; andeven accessibility checkers. Along the way we will review best practices for creating accessible documents, presentations, and spreadsheets while we work with attendees on highlighting readily available tools and workflows available in their familiar Microsoft tools, as well as the newer tools in the Suite.

Practical Experience & Take-Aways

Throughout this workshop, we will demonstrate and share real-world examples of how these tools and workflows have been successfully implemented in educational settings. We will focus on understanding the challenges faced by faculty in designing content for all courses across the curriculum, while learning about basic and newer Microsoft tools for helpful accessibility-first teaching and learning solutions. Attendees will learn how to actually use those platforms and tools with hands-on experience with these tools and processes, as the workshop facilitators lead them through updating documents, checking for accessibility, and making real-time changes to their files. Attendees will work in real time on updates to best understand the outcomes of using these platforms and tools. Attendees to our workshop will walk away with a toolkit of practical tips and best practices they can apply in their own work immediately after the workshop, as well as share with others on their campuses to strengthen the use of built-in tools in common Office Suite products.

In this workshop, attendees will:

• Develop an understanding of why digital accessibility is crucial across all facets of education and how digital barriers to access and inclusion have negatively affected learners

• Learn how to utilize various Microsoft tools to create accessible content and platforms, thereby removing barriers in accessing digital materials

• Discover best practices for creating accessible content and gain insights from real-world examples of how these tools have been successfully implemented in educational settings

• Practice real-time document conversions using newly acquired accessibility revision and checking skills within the Microsoft platform, led by faculty who utilize these tools readily in their own online and blended classes

Reference:

Sanderson, N. C., Kessel, S., & Chen, W. (2022). What do faculty members know about universal design and digital accessibility? A qualitative study in computer science and engineering disciplines. Universal access in the information society, 21(2), 351–365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-022-00875-x