M365 Playbooks1. Plan
Decide your accessibility standard and defaults
The standard you commit to, who owns it, the defaults Microsoft 365 applies for everyone, and how people report barriers.
- Duration
- 4 to 6 weeks
- Complexity
- Medium
Program · Operations
Accessibility in Microsoft 365
Commit to a standard, make accessible the default in Office, Teams and SharePoint, and keep content usable by everyone.
Written for Microsoft 365 E5 · Needs beyond E5: Teams Premium for live translated captions.
Essential path
Start with these. Go further, below, covers specific workloads and needs to complete your approach.
2. Deploy
Turn on accessibility by default
Checker and alt text policies, caption-ready Teams defaults and accessible templates, rolled out in waves with authors who create the most content.
- Duration
- 6 to 8 weeks
- Complexity
- Low
3. Maintain
Keep content accessible over time
A monthly sample of real content, a working barrier report channel, settings kept current, and progress reported yearly.
- Duration
- Ongoing; first cycle in 4 weeks
- Complexity
- Low
↻ Refine feeds what you learn back into Plan.
Go further
Show 3 more playbooks for specific workloads and needs
Plan · Adoption
Plan adoption for accessible content
The few habits each group needs, champions who model them, and messages tied to the Deploy waves.
Deploy · SharePoint sites and pages
Build accessible SharePoint sites and pages
Accessible themes, layouts and page templates, alt text in web parts, captioned video, and a light check for high-traffic pages.
Deploy · Meetings and events
Make meetings and events accessible
Caption, transcription and real-time text settings, support for human captioners and interpreters, and habits for organizers.