Hi, Insiders! You are at the forefront of how we design every new feature and update. Your feedback, suggestions, and insights help everyone have a great experience using our products. In 2025, we continued co-creating with internal and external blind and low vision and deaf and hard-of-hearing communities to make collaborating and creating content across Microsoft 365 seamless. Here’s a look back at some of our biggest accessibility enhancements over the past year:
AI-assisted accessibility
A strong foundation of accessibility is critical for AI tools like Copilot to deliver the most value. Last year, we upgraded the Copilot experience to enable anyone to create polished documents from voice notes, present math and other complex topics with ease, and quickly catch up on discussions with intelligent summaries. With alt text powered by generative AI, you can write richer image descriptions that provide screen readers with ample context for understanding your content. Finally, our expanded library of Copilot prompts help you share sensitive information and communicate more confidently and empathetically, whether at work or at school, or when dealing with a personal matter.
- Writing and presenting about math is easy and inclusive with Microsoft 365
- Richer alt text in Word and PowerPoint, powered by generative AI
- Microsoft 365 Copilot: Your time and project management advisor
- Accessibility, a year in review: Microsoft 365 Copilot support and better user experiences
- Boost communication with Microsoft Copilot prompts for neuroinclusion
- Improve communication with Microsoft Copilot and other Microsoft 365 tools
- Copilot supports communication in every style
Building a better experience for people who are blind or have low vision
According to the World Health Organization, over 2 billion people globally have some kind of vision disability. To address the needs of this population, we continue to invest in the screen reader experience across Microsoft 365, including making Narrator more seamless and intuitive, enhancing keyboard shortcuts, adding support for Braille devices and verbosity, and improving navigation and comprehension of images, tables, comments, and more. In Outlook, screen readers now provide consistent announcements for misspelled words, grammatical errors, and confirmation when text formatting changes are applied, and you can use the up and down arrow keys to move between ribbon tabs and actions in Mail. Other updates, such as Dark Mode in Excel, Screen Curtain in Narrator, and Teams layout flexibility, enable you to build a workspace that suits your unique working style and needs.
- International Day of Persons with Disabilities: Our commitment to a better screen reader experience
- Improved keyboard and Narrator support for comments in Word for Windows
- Better screen reader experience: Audio feedback for 60+ Word keyboard shortcuts
- Reduce eye strain with Dark Mode in Excel for Windows
- Floating images now accessible for screen readers in Word
- Accessibility, a year in review: Microsoft 365 Copilot support and better user experiences
- Disabling Immersive Reader for protected documents in Word for the web
Building a better experience for people who are deaf or hard of hearing
In 2025, we worked closely with the deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) community to support the unique needs of signers and their interpreters in Teams meetings. Sign language mode uses sign language detection to identify when a D/HH participant is actively signing and elevates them to active speaker status. This enhances the discoverability of signers and ensures their contributions are clearly visible. The introduction of Real-time text (RTT), pop-out captions, AI-powered audio recaps and real-time agent assistance in chats, makes conversations even more accessible for everyone.
Learn more:
- Inclusive communication with Sign Language Mode in Microsoft Teams
- Real-Time Text (RTT) In Microsoft Teams
- Microsoft Teams: Pop out live captions and Real-Time Text (RTT) in Teams meetings
- Microsoft Teams: Usability and privacy improvements for live captions and transcripts in meetings
- What’s New in Microsoft Teams | October 2025
- What’s New in Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Ignite 2025
- What’s New in Microsoft Teams | May 2025 - Build Edition
Easier workflows for creating accessible content
Many of you asked for better ways to make your documents, presentations, emails, and spreadsheets more accessible – and we heard you! Accessibility Assistant now handles tables and shapes smarter so you can focus on truly impactful changes, while the Reading Order Pane in PowerPoint allows you to visualize how your content is read by screen readers and adjust the order as needed. Captioning videos has never been easier, either, with speech recognition and added support for SRT files.
- Automatic alt text generation in Word and PowerPoint on Copilot+ PCs
- Accessibility Assistant updates: Smarter handling of tables and shapes
- Improving accessibility: Standard red gets an update in Microsoft 365
- Writing and presenting about math is easy and inclusive with Microsoft 365
- Tell engaging stories with video in PowerPoint
- New Reading Order Pane in PowerPoint for Mac to make slides accessible
- Easily caption videos in PowerPoint for Mac
- Caption videos in PowerPoint with SRT files
Your feedback makes us better
We hope that these announcements have inspired you to take advantage of new and improved accessibility features. We value your ongoing support and insightful feedback as it inspires us to continually innovate and enhance our products as an essential tool for everyone. Every suggestion and comment you share plays a pivotal role in our journey towards excellence. Please keep them coming – if you have thoughts or suggestions for a specific app, select Help > Feedback or type Alt + Y1 + K.
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