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This guide was written to support Microsoft Word 2021 and later. Some of the functionality will be different for older versions of Word.
Accessibility note for screen reader users: this guide bolds actionable items in Microsoft Word. Screen reader settings should be adjusted to ensure bold emphasis is read.
Depending on your version of Word you will have access to either the Accessibility Checker or the Accessibility Assistant. We recommend you periodically run these while you work. This will save you the time and effort of having to remediate your entire document for accessibility in the final stages of document creation.
How to run the Accessibility Checker/Assistant while you work:
You should always include headings in your Word document to ensure they are accessible. A helpful way to check the heading structure in Word is to use the Navigation Pane, this helps you read the through headings in your document to ensure they are well written and properly structured.
How to set up the Navigation Pane to ensure your headings are properly structured:
Make sure you save your Word document using a descriptive filename. This is the first thing a screen reader will read out when accessing a file and should give the user a good idea about the document’s content.
To save a Word document:
Document titles are essential for PDF accessibility, but adding good metadata helps a variety of users.
To edit document level metadata such as author, title, and subject:
Headings provide essential document structure for all users. Accessible headings need to be formatted using Styles, written effectively, and structured correctly.
Using Styles to create headings ensures that users of assistive technology can identify them programmatically (i.e., without the need for visual cues). This allows more users to effectively navigate Word documents.
To create or modify a heading using Styles:
How to set heading structure:
How to write effective headings:
Smart font choice is often an overlooked aspect of document creation; however, careful consideration of fonts creates a much more accessible document.
Considerations for choosing an accessible font:
Using Word’s built-in formatting options for paragraphs and lists creates more accessible documents. Additionally, it does a much better job of preserving accessible formatting if you export to PDF.
Some general tips for formatting:
Avoid using hard returns to create white space in your document. Hard returns are sometimes read by screen readers and can create inaccessible content when exported to other formats.
How to check Paragraph marks and hidden formatting in your document:
To adjust line spacing for the entire document:
To adjust white space before or after specific paragraphs or headings:
To create a page break:
Structural markup is essential to accessible tables. This provides users of assistive technology the context needed to locate where they are in a table. Word provides limited options for providing structural markup as compared to other formats such as HTML and PDF.
Rules for using tables in Word:
How to create a table:
How to format table headers:
Charts and graphs are great ways to summarize data in a visual format. However, there are some ways to optimize your chart or graph for accessibility.
Optimize chart and graph white space and legibility:
Note: you can also select elements within your chart or graph (e.g., legend or data points) and use the Font formatting options to increase legibility.
Adjust colours that have poor contrast:
Ensure colour is not the sole means of representing information by:
To make your link text accessible make sure it is:
There are three different link options for Word documents:
How to add a link:
Adding links to documents that are intended to be printed:
To add or edit alt text, you first need to determine which type of image you are dealing with. We can categorize images into two primary types, functional and decorative:
Images added to Word are automatically given alt text. To edit or add alt text within Word:
Simple rules for alternative text:
When placing an image in a Word document you must ensure that it is formatted inline with text. This helps to ensure that screen readers recognize the image as a part of the document. To ensure an image is inline with text:
Depending on which version of Word you are running, you will have access to either the Accessibility Checker or the Accessibility Assistant. Older versions of Word use the Accessibility Checker while newer versions have the Accessibility Assistant.
To open the Accessibility Checker or Assistant:
Always run the Accessibility Checker prior to finishing your document and make sure all errors, warnings, and tips are resolved.
Accessibility Checker results are categorized into four areas:
The Accessibility Assistant is very similar to the Checker but has a slightly different layout. Always run the Accessibility Assistant prior to finishing your document and make sure all issues are resolved.
Accessibility Assistant results are categorized into five areas:
Use of the Accessibility Checker or Assistant cannot ensure a fully accessible document. To ensure accessibility, you will need to run some manual checks:
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