Is it enough to just send the PowerPoint file rather than a PDF?
Not automatically — a PowerPoint file can still be inaccessible if it lacks a logical reading order or alt text on images. The file format matters less than whether it was built with an accessible structure in the first place.
A student says they don't need Braille — can I assume large print or digital text is enough?
Ask, rather than assume either way. Braille literacy and preference vary considerably, and the student's own account of what works for them should always take priority over a generic assumption in either direction.
What's the fastest way to check if a document I've made is accessible?
Try navigating it using only the keyboard and your operating system's built-in screen reader (NVDA on Windows, VoiceOver on Mac) — if you can follow the content and structure that way, a student using assistive technology likely can too.
A Second Illustrative Scenario
In Practice — An inaccessible online reading list system
A student with low vision (a composite, illustrative example) found the university library's online reading list system nearly unusable, because it relied heavily on colour-coded visual tags with no text label.
What helped: the module leader raised this with the library's digital services team, who added text labels alongside the colour tags — a small technical change that fixed the barrier for every visually impaired or colour-blind user of the system, not just the one student who raised it.
The lesson: individual teachers cannot fix every system-level barrier alone, but reporting one clearly and specifically can lead to a fix that helps far beyond a single module — reporting a barrier (Part 1, Section 4) is genuinely part of the job, not an extra.