We’ve gathered several helpful accessibility resources here for you.
First, start with the intro and fundamentals; these apply across all content types. Next, see our program-specific document accessibility tutorials, including Microsoft Word and PowerPoint tutorials. Lastly, we have provided some additional resources from IT Accessibility and the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) at Texas A&M University.
Page Contents
Why & How We Create Accessible Online Courses
- Intro to Accessibility: The What, Why, and How of Accessibility (Accessibility Series)
- Part 1: Why Should We Develop Accessible Online Courses? (3 min.)
- Part 2: How to Make Accessible Online Courses (4 min.)
Fundamental Elements of Accessibility
- Accessibility Fundamentals (Accessibility Series) – Images & Alternative Text, Headings, Descriptive Links, Contrast & Color, Data Tables, etc.
- Accessibility Tips (25 min.)
- Web Accessibility Content Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level A & AA Checklist
Video & Captions
- How to Add Subtitles and Captions to YouTube (YouTube Help) (3.5 min.)
- Editing Captions in YuJa (Excerpt from Browser-based Editing in Yuja)
Math Accessibility
When creating PDFs that include mathematical equations, the method eSAIL recommends is to convert your LaTeX (.tex) file to Microsoft Word using Pandoc, then export the file to PDF using Word’s built-in “Save As PDF” option. In testing, this workflow consistently preserved equation meaning for screen readers and performed well with LMS accessibility scoring tools Ally and Panorama.
Newer LaTeX workflows that use PDF/UA-2 tagging (e.g., the LaTeX Tagged PDF Project) can also produce accessible PDFs with properly structured equations. However, UA-2–aligned PDFs are expected to receive lower accessibility scores in Canvas (Ally) because the system does not yet fully support PDF 2.0 tagging, which can cause equations to be incorrectly flagged as “images with no descriptions” even when they are accessible to screen readers
- Accessible Math Languages & Tools for Content Presentation
- Using the LaTeX prototype for accessible PDF (The LaTeX Project)
- Creating Accessible LaTeX PDFs: PDF/UA-2 Compliance in Overleaf (December 2025)
- MathCAT Add-on for NVDA & MathML (MathCAT generates speech and braille from MathML.)
Specialized Content Accessibility
- Generating and Applying Long Descriptions of Complex Images
- Making Handwritten Notes Accessible
- Smart Note License Request for TAMU Engineering Faculty
Document Accessibility
Microsoft Word Documents
Microsoft Word is the most popular program used to write textual documents; it is also frequently used to create PDFs. Word’s automated accessibility checker can help you make documents more accessible, though it won’t catch everything.
Note: Only a combination of automated and manual testing can truly create accessible documents. (Be sure you know the fundamentals!)
This Word-specific tutorial includes high-impact ways to improve your document accessibility.
- Focus: How to Create an Accessible Word Document (Accessibility Series)
- Supplemental: Word Accessibility Cheat Sheet (Accessibility Series), How to Create Accessible Tables in Microsoft Word (Accessibility Series).
PowerPoint Presentations
- Focus: Accessibility Tips for PowerPoint (25 min.)
- Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations (Microsoft Support)
- Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations (WebAIM)
More Training Opportunities
- eSAIL’s Faculty Accessibility Toolkit
- eSAIL’s Live Workshops
- 2114218: Digital Accessibility Awareness (TrainTraq)
- Digital Accessibility Training (IT Accessibility)
- CTE – Digital Accessibility (Canvas, Ally, and Panorama resources + ADA Title II FAQ)
- CATIE – Accessibility Tools, Webinars, & Training
- LinkedIn Learning: Creating Accessible PDFs (and Word, PowerPoint, & Adobe InDesign documents)
