M365 PlaybooksMicrosoft 365 apps · Teams · SharePoint· Plan
Decide your accessibility standard and defaults
Purpose
Make sure everyone, including colleagues and customers with disabilities, can use what the organization creates and shares in Microsoft 365. Most barriers aren't technical failures: they are documents without headings, images without descriptions, meetings without captions. Deciding the standard, the owner and the defaults up front turns accessibility from a request someone has to make into the way content is produced.
Overview
The standard you commit to, who owns it, the defaults Microsoft 365 applies for everyone, and how people report barriers.
- Effort
- About 8 to 12 person-days
- Duration
- 4 to 6 weeks
- Complexity
- Medium
- Who's in the room
- Accessibility lead (owner), Microsoft 365 Apps admin, Teams admin, privacy officer, communications lead, employees who use assistive technology
Risk of not doing it
Without an agreed standard and defaults, accessibility depends on each author's knowledge, barriers are found by the people they exclude, and obligations go unmet without anyone noticing.
Key activities
The plan in order: what must be true first, what to decide, then how to configure the pilot and production.
Prerequisites
Gather your obligations and commitments
List the accessibility legislation, policy and contract terms that apply to you, and the technical standard each points to. Note whether they cover only websites or also documents, meetings and software. Add internal commitments, such as an accessibility plan or a public pledge.
Find where content is created
Map where people create and share content: Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents, email, Teams meetings and recordings, SharePoint pages, forms and video. Most barriers start in everyday documents and meetings, not on the intranet, so this map decides where the defaults matter most.
Decisions
Decision: Which standard do you commit to?
A web-only standard leaves out documents, meetings and the tools people use to create them. Microsoft's own Accessibility Conformance Reports describe its products against Section 508, WCAG and EN 301 549, which covers documents and software as well as the web. Pick one standard and version, say what it applies to, and use it in templates, training and contracts.
Options
- No formal standard
- A web standard for public websites only
- A standard covering web, documents and software, applied to all published content
Recommended default: A standard covering web, documents and software, applied to all published content
Decision: Who owns accessibility?
Accessibility spans IT settings, templates, training, procurement and how barriers are handled. Name one owner who decides, with IT, communications, HR and procurement as contributors, and include people who use assistive technology in decisions that affect them.
Options
- IT owns it
- A named accessibility lead, with IT, communications, HR and procurement contributing
Recommended default: A named accessibility lead, with IT, communications, HR and procurement contributing
Decision: Should the Accessibility Checker run by default?
Admins can make the Accessibility Checker run automatically in Word, Excel and PowerPoint on Windows through Group Policy or Cloud Policy, and Cloud Policy has an accessibility baseline for this. Once set, people can't turn the checker off, and issues can be made more prominent. There is no policy that requires a check before saving or sending, so the checker informs rather than blocks.
Options
- Leave it to each person
- Run the checker by default and make issues more visible
Recommended default: Run the checker by default and make issues more visible
Decision: How do privacy and accessibility settings fit together?
Automatic alt text is one of Office's connected experiences that analyze content. If you turn that category off for privacy reasons, you also lose automatic alt text and Read Aloud. Decide this with the privacy officer rather than letting one setting quietly undo the other. If you keep it, a policy can make automatic alt text always on; people should still review what it writes.
Options
- Turn off connected experiences that analyze content
- Keep them, turn on automatic alt text, and train people to review it
Recommended default: Keep them, turn on automatic alt text, and train people to review it
Decision: Captions and transcripts by default?
Teams meeting policies decide whether live captions are available and whether meetings can be transcribed. Live captions aren't saved; transcripts are, so they become records your retention policies must cover. Make captions available to everyone, and allow transcription with retention decided in the Retention policies topic.
Options
- Captions and transcription off
- Captions available to everyone; transcription allowed, with retention set
Recommended default: Captions available to everyone; transcription allowed, with retention set
Decision: How do people report barriers?
People who meet a barrier need a clear place to say so and to get a response. A general service desk queue tends to lose these. Publish one accessibility feedback channel with an owner and a response target, and use what it receives to improve templates, training and settings.
Options
- The general service desk
- A published accessibility feedback channel with an owner
Recommended default: A published accessibility feedback channel with an owner
Decision: What do you require of vendors?
Third-party apps that sit alongside Microsoft 365 can undo your work. Microsoft publishes conformance reports for its own products, which shows the kind of evidence to ask for: a conformance report against your chosen standard, and a plan with dates for known gaps.
Options
- No accessibility requirement
- A conformance report against your standard, and dated plans for gaps
Recommended default: A conformance report against your standard, and dated plans for gaps
Pilot configuration
Test the defaults with people who use assistive technology
Before anything is rolled out, ask employees who use screen readers, captions, magnification or keyboard-only navigation to try the proposed templates and meeting settings. What they find shapes the defaults and the training.
Production configuration
Approve the standard and defaults
Record the standard, scope, owner, checker and alt text settings, caption and transcription defaults, the feedback channel and the procurement requirement on one page. Have the sponsor approve it and hand it to Deploy.
Make it enforceable
Once deployed, Cloud Policy keeps the checker running and automatic alt text on, and Teams policies set caption defaults. Nothing can require a check before sending, so templates, training and sampling remain the main controls.
Partly enforced. The gaps are a risk until a mechanism covers them.
Approval and readiness
Draft the standard and defaults
One page built from the decisions above.
Move on when: Every decision has an owner and a reason
Review with assistive technology usersChange: Explain
Share the draft and the test results.
Move on when: Their feedback is reflected or answered
Review with privacy and legal
Connected experiences, transcripts and obligations.
Move on when: No open objections
Approve with the sponsorChange: Inform
Fifteen minutes on the standard, defaults and cost of not doing it.
Move on when: The standard is approved for Deploy
Common challenges
If youTreat accessibility as an IT setting
What tends to happenThe checker is on, but documents, meetings and pages still exclude people.
A better approachPair the defaults with templates, training and an owner.
If youRely on the Accessibility Checker alone
What tends to happenIssues it doesn't detect, such as poor reading order or unhelpful automatic alt text, reach readers.
A better approachAdd a short manual checklist and review automatic alt text.
If youTurn off connected experiences for privacy without checking the impact
What tends to happenAutomatic alt text and Read Aloud disappear for everyone.
A better approachDecide connected experiences with the privacy officer and the accessibility lead together.
If youLeave procurement out
What tends to happenA new tool brings back barriers the rest of Microsoft 365 removed.
A better approachRequire a conformance report against your standard for new tools.
Checkpoints
Pilot
- Have people who use assistive technology tried the proposed defaults?
- Are privacy and accessibility settings decided together?
Production
- Is the standard approved, with scope and owner?
- Is the feedback channel published?
- Is the procurement requirement in place?
Success measures
Capture a baseline before you start, or you won't be able to show the change.
| Measure | Where you see it | Good direction |
|---|---|---|
| Decisions informed by assistive technology users | Review log | Up |
| New contracts with an accessibility requirement | Procurement records | Up |
| Open barrier reports | Accessibility feedback channel | Down |
Ready-to-use text
One-page accessibility standard
Standard and version | What it applies to (web, documents, meetings, video, software) | Owner and contributors | Checker and alt text settings | Caption and transcription defaults | Feedback channel and response target | Procurement requirement | Review date
Procurement clause
The supplier will provide a current accessibility conformance report for the product against [standard and version], and a dated plan to address any criteria not met. Material accessibility defects found during the contract will be fixed within [period].
Additional reading
Changelog
Changelog (1 version)
| Version | Date | Author | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sev Derghazarian | First version. Facts checked against Microsoft Learn on 2026-10-15. |