Accessibility and inclusion: updating Microsoft Office
Web accessibility has always been a requirement for UMaine websites, and has been a regular feature in our monthly newsletter. Ensuring your content is accessible is part of an inclusive communication strategy.
All university-provided computers have a license for Microsoft Office— is your copy of this software up to date? To find out, open one of your Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel or Powerpoint and select the “About Microsoft” menu item from the top drop-down menus.
Your software license should indicate that you are using a “Microsoft 365 Subscription.” If you are using an older version of this software, we recommend you contact University of Maine System IT in order to update your machine. Older versions of this software will not have the latest accessibility features and updates.
For example, Microsoft Word 365 now includes an audio transcript feature—you can upload an audio file or record audio directly to Word, and the software will provide a transcript that identifies different voices in the recording (you will need to update to indicate who is speaking, but search-and-replace can make quick work of that task).