The Accessibility Assistant is a tool available in Microsoft products that highlights specific issues and how to fix them. The Word Accessibility Assistant will identify issues in the following categories:
- Color and Contrast: This category ensures the text is easy to read against its background.
- Media and Illustrations: This category checks for missing alt text and other media-related issues.
- Tables: This one looks for issues in table structure and readability.
- Document Structure: This category ensures headings and other structural elements are used correctly.
- Document Access: This category verifies if the document can be accessed programmatically, such as using screen readers.
Note: You can track accessibility issues as you create your document. If an issue arises, the Accessibility: Investigate button will appear in the status bar at the bottom of the document.
To run the Accessibility Assistant
It's a good idea to run the Accessibility Assistant periodically as you work. To open the Accessibility Assistant pane:
- From the toolbar, select the Review tab.
- Select Check Accessibility, from the dropdown menu select Check Accessibility.
Limitations of the Accessibility Assistant
While the built in Accessibility Assistant is helpful to ensure you avoid certain issues, it has limitations because it does not have an understanding of context and purpose. Always remember to do the following checks yourself:
- Headings: ensure your headings are properly structured and have descriptive and unique names. See the Headings page for more information.
- Links: Link text should be descriptive. See the Links page for more information.
- Alt text: Review all text to ensure it is well written and succinct.
- Visuals: Ensure graphic elements, like tables and charts, have sufficient colour contrast. Use a colour contrast checker such as the Colour Contrast Analyzer or WebAIM's online Contrast Checker.
- Grammar and Spelling: In addition to using the automated spell check tools, make sure to check your document for errors.
