Free Assistive Technology

Accessibility tips in Microsoft

Download fluent fonts for easy reading

These are variants of the Microsoft fonts, Calibri and Sitka Small, which are intended to help readers with visual crowding by adding extra space between letters, words, and lines. Visual crowding is sometimes associated with dyslexia.

More information on fluent fonts

Use Microsoft Editor to check grammar and more

Microsoft Editor is an AI-powered service that helps bring out your best writer whether you are writing a Word doc, composing an email message, or posting on a website like LinkedIn. Editor underlines the issues it finds. Select the underlined word or phrase to accept or ignore the suggestion.

Immersive Reader in Edge

Streamline content on webpages to help you focus and absorb information online. Remove distractions like ads and modify pages to fit your reading preferences.

More information on Immersive Reader in Edge

Use Microsoft Edge to read PDFs aloud on your desktop.

1) Open the file in Microsoft Edge’s PDF viewer and click the Read aloud option at the top.

2) If you have already downloaded the PDF, locate it on your computer. Right-click on it, go to Open with, and select Microsoft Edge from the submenu.

3) After opening your PDF in Edge, click the Read aloud option at the top. You can change the playback and voice options from the toolbar at the top.

Immersive Reader in Word

Support reading and writing by using Immersive Reader to customise how word documents appear while you read and edit. Immersive Reader provides options for a comfortable and easy to process experience by allowing you to listen to the text read aloud or adjust how text appears by modifying spacing, colour and more.

More information on Immersive Reader in Word

View accessibility tools for neurodiversity

Automatic live captioning and transcription in MS Teams

When you are in a MS Teams meeting go to More.

You then have the options – Turn on live captions and Start transcription.

Start transcription means:

all participants receive a notification that the meeting is being transcribed
the transcript appears on the right-hand side of the MS Teams window/application.

If you select Turn on live captions rather than Start transcription, the caption file will be deleted at the end of the meeting.

Head here for tips on how to use Read Aloud on Android or iPhone.