Accessibility tools in Microsoft 365

What does this webinar cover?
In 2015 a team of Microsoft engineers came together in their annual ‘hackathon’ to pull together their thoughts on supporting those with dyslexia. In 2021, the resulting Learning Tools have now grown into a set of features that support accessibility needs across the education community. The tools include features like Immersive Reader, Dictation, Subtitles and many more and are available free in Microsoft 365.

In this free webinar, Arran Smith will talk about all the latest updates and features that are available as part of Microsoft 365 accessibility tools and features along with giving some updates on a brand-new tool called Reading Progress.

Who would benefit from this training?
This webinar is designed for teachers, SENCO’s, senior leaders and IT professionals giving you a basic awareness of what is available to support children and young people with SEND using Microsoft 365.

Questions and Answers from the session

Question: Are the features that were described also free for FE colleges and higher education institutions?

• Answer: The simple answer to this is that yes they are.

Question: How do the MS accessibility features compare to Claro Read?

• Answer: After the session arran did say that he likes Claro read and that some of the features are the same. The differences are that Claro Read is an additional piece of software whereas the MS features are built in and also Claro Read does have a cost attached.

Question: Does MS have tools that support the creation of websites?

• Answer: Unfortunately, at present, tools for this purpose aren’t available. However, you can use PowerPoint to create content for webpages and as you saw in the webinar, the accessibility features are available in PowerPoint. You can find out how to do this here (just scroll down to ‘Options for later versions of PowerPoint’)

Useful resources

Accessibility Guide with nasen

Microsoft Accessibility Features

Microsoft 365 Education: Learning Tools Flyer

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This resource was last reviewed in October 2023.