Accessibility isn’t just about compliance—it’s a nurtured habit of mind. One that grows with practice, adapts as technology changes, and responds to our evolving understanding of inclusion. Whether you're updating a syllabus, sharing a video, or creating a Canvas module, every small design decision has the potential to open—or close—doors for your students.
As faculty and staff, you play a vital role in ensuring that students can access the information, services, and learning experiences they need to succeed. Below, you'll find curated accessibility resources with commentary on what to expect. These tools support your work and offer guidance no matter where you are in your accessibility journey.
University of Missouri's Digital Accessibility Resources
UM System's Digital Accessibility team hosts to serve as a resource for faculty, staff and students seeking to create digitally accessible content. They are continually publishing new resources and materials to assist you in this effort!
- Join MU Extension via Zoom on the first Tuesday of each month at 10 a.m. for tips, tricks and trends on all things technology.
Universal Design for Instruction (UDI)
This guide goes beyond document design. It offers guidance on course structure, classroom etiquette, and how to navigate conversations about disability with empathy and professionalism. UDI is about designing courses that work well for everyone from the start—not just retrofitting after barriers arise.Penn State Accessibility Resources
Penn State offers a comprehensive hub for creating accessible digital course content. You'll find guidance on captioning, formatting text, designing math content, and more. It's a go-to site for quick tutorials and deep dives alike.Accessibility Standards Cheat Sheets
The National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE) provides helpful cheat sheets for commonly used programs like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. These downloadable PDFs are great reference tools when you're short on time but want to get it right.Color Contrast Checker
Color contrast affects readability and visual clarity across course materials. Venngage offers a free tool to check whether your color choices meet accessibility standards. A great step for presentations, graphics, and Canvas pages.
Bookmarklets
Highlighted by DeQue University, Paul J. Adams created bookmarklets for accessibility testing that use JavaScript to highlight roles, states, and properties of accessibility elements on the page. These bookmarklets can help you test that elements including forms, headings, lists, and tables are accessible.
On this page
CAFE Quick Guide: Making PDFs Accessible in Adobe Pro
Use this to help you find the most effective and accessible format. For teaching materials, use this . A is also available.
Why this matters: Using the best format from the start can save you time and improve accessibility for all users.
If a PDF is the best format, continue on to Step 2.Open the file in Adobe Pro. Can you select text and use the search tool to find words in the text?
- If yes, then OCR has been applied and you can move to Step 3
- If no, then run OCR
- Go to All Tools > Scan & OCR > Recognize Text > In This File
- Confirm the language and run text recognition
Why this matters: OCR converts content into readable text that can be read by a screen reader.
Check to see if there are tags.
- Go to Menu > View > Show/Hide > Side Panels > Accessibility Tags
If there are not tags, then tag the PDF
- Go to All Tools > Prepare for Accessibility > Automatically Tag PDF
Why this matters: Tags identify the type of content so screen readers can understand and navigate the content correctly.
An accessible PDF should include a document title and language.
- Go to Menu > Document Properties
- In the description tab, add the document title in the Title space
- Select the advanced tab. Under reading options set the Language
Why this matters: Provides assistive technology with information about the document to improve organization and navigability.
All images need to have alternate text, a short description that describes the important features of the image.
- Go to All Tools > Prepare for Accessibility > Add Alternate Text
- Add short descriptions for meaningful images. will auto-generate alternate text for you, which you can then edit for accuracy and context.
- Mark decorative images as decorative
Why this matters: Allows people who cannot see the images to understand their content and purpose.
- Go to All Tools > Prepare for Accessibility > Fix Reading Order > Show Order Panel
- Check if the numbered boxes are in the order which the document should be read
- If a box is out of order, select it in the right-side menu and drag and drop it in the appropriate place.
Why this matters: Ensures that content is read by assistive technology in the correct order, so it makes sense to the reader.
Check that headings are marked properly in the tags.
- Go to Menu > View > Show/Hide > Side Panels > Accessibility Tags
- Find the tag that corresponds to each heading by clicking through the tags in the right-hand menu. The content that corresponds to that tag will be in a pink box.
- If the heading level is incorrect in the tags menu, type in the correct heading level. For example, if the title of a document is marked as <P> you would change it to read <H1>.
- <H1> is the title of the document
- <H2> are the main sections of the paper
- <H3> are subheadings within a heading 2 section and so on
- Don’t skip heading levels. Always start with heading 1. Subheadings should be one number higher than the heading they are within.
Why this matters: Headings allow the reader to navigate quickly through the document.
- Lists should use list tags <L> and <LI>
- Tables should include table and header tags <Table>, <TR>, <TH>, & <TD>
Why this matters: Proper tagging ensures that people using assistive technology can fully access all content.
Run the Adobe Accessibility Checker to identify any remaining accessibility issues.
- Go to All Tools > Prepare for Accessibility > Check for Accessibility > Start Checking
Visit the CAFE accessibility resources or contact for support.