Microsoft Word: accessible practice

Accessibility in Microsoft Word

There are several ways you can make Microsoft Word documents accessible for everyone. This will benefit everyone reading your materials, texts, content or worksheets and make some tasks easier for you.

Accessible Microsoft Word document example

Download the Microsoft Word: accessible practice document (Word document) [128KB] to view comments explaining the following points.

Content structure

One of the easiest things with the biggest impact you can do is break your content into sections using subheadings. This will make it easy to skim read, and people reading your document can keep track of what they are reading.

Content structure: accessible practice (LX resource)

In-built styles

Headings

After structuring your content with subheadings, use the heading styles (levels 1-6) to demonstrate the hierarchy of your content. Using the correct heading styles for subheadings is important for people who use screen readers.

To add heading level styles in Word:

• Go to the Home tab
• Select the Styles Pane
• Select the Heading level (remember not to skip a heading level as this would confuse screen reader users)

Adding heading styles in Microsoft Word (Microsoft Guide)

Useful tip

To make long documents more accessible and easier to navigate, Word can automatically generate a table of contents for you in the Reference tab. Word will use the heading level styles you have have applied in your document generate the table of contents.

Insert a table of contents (Microsoft Guide)

Normal text

For text that is not a heading, like paragraph or body text, select Normal in the Styles Pane. It’s a good habit to do this when copying and pasting content from other sources to clear old formatting.

You can change the formatting of normal text and heading styles, but here are some tips for ensuring you making accessible choices:

• Change line spacing of a document (Microsoft guide) instead of extra returns (meaning, pressing enter to start a new line) in between paragraphs as a screen reader will read out the additional returns.
• Use left align text (unless the language of your document is read right to left).
• Avoid fonts smaller than 12pt (if you use footnotes increase the size of the normal text rather than decreasing the font of the footnotes).
• Choose a sans serif font for your document, such as Arial, Calibri, Century Gothic, Helvetica, Tahoma or Verdana.

Customise or create new styles (Microsoft Guide)

Useful tip

Sans serif fonts are easier to read on screen, whereas serif fonts are easier to read in print. As there may be some students in your subject who require accessible formats – it’s best to always stick with electronic documents, so sans serif fonts are the way to go.

Lists

• Use the numbered and bulleted lists in the Home tab in Word for lists.
• Don’t use punctuation or other markers (such as dashes or asterisks) in place of proper formatting. A screen reader will not interpret these marks as being in a list format. 

Creating bulleted and numbered lists in Microsoft Word (Microsoft Guide)

Language

• Use clear and concise language
• Explain new discipline-specific terms
• Provide instructions to students in plain English

Language: accessible practice (LX resource)

Alternative text

Any image you add to a Word document should have alternative text (alt text) or be marked as decorative. It provides a text description of what is in the image for users who cannot see it. 

Mac or browser

To add alternative text on a Mac or browser:

• Right click on the image
• Select Edit alternative text
• Delete the automatically generated text (usually it is not very helpful)
• Write short meaningful alternative text, or mark as decorative if the images does not provide useful information that someone who cannot see the image would miss.

You can also find the Alt Text pane on the Format Picture tab.

PC

To add alternative text on a PC:

• Right click on the image
• Select Format Picture, which will open the Format Picture pane
• Select the Layout and Properties option
• Write short meaningful alternative text, in the Title field

Add alternative text to a shape, picture, chart, SmartArt graphic, or other object (Microsoft Guide)

Useful tip

Our Alternative text: accessible practice resource (LX resource) provides guidance around how to make alternative text meaningful.

Links

Provide link text that is descriptive, so that the link destination makes sense out of context (and include file type and size for downloads after the link).

You can do this in Word by editing the display text option.

Create or edit a hyperlink (Microsoft Guide)

Useful tip

Our Links: accessible practice resource (LX resource) provides guidance around how to write descriptive link text.

Colours

• For all text, use foreground/background colours that have high contrast. If you’re not sure about the contrast levels of different colours, play it safe by sticking with the default style colours or use the accessibility checker to determine if the text and background colour has high enough contrast.
• Don’t use colour or shape as the only way to identify something in your document. Use text labels or descriptions instead.

Colour: accessible practice (LX resource)

Tables

Don’t use tables to make cosmetic changes to the layout of the document. You should only use tables to present data.

To make a data table accessible, use the following settings once you have added the table:

• Use tables with column headings to display data.
• Use the caption tool to title your table, by clicking on the Reference tab and then Insert caption. Add your title in the Caption text box, select Table from the Label dropdown menu, and then click OK.
• Identify the Header row by selecting the top row of the table, right click and select Table properties, check ‘Repeat as header row at the top of each page’ and click OK.
• Ensure your table is restricted to the page width of the document. Select the whole table and right click, then choose Table properties. In the Row tab, uncheck ‘Allow rows to break across pages’ and click OK.
• Add an alt tag description to your table to summarise the content. Right click on table, select Table properties, then select Alt text and type your description in the text box. 

Create accessible tables (Microsoft Guide)

Accessibility checker

The accessibility checker automatically scans your document, identifies issues and provides information on how to fix them.

To use the accessibility checker

1. Navigate to the the Review tab
2. Select Check Accessibility.
3. Follow the instructions provided by Word to fix any issues

Check document accessibility (Microsoft guide)

Useful tip

Keep in mind that the accessibility checker is an automated tool which may not always provide advice that is appropriate for your context, so you will need to use your judgement.

Accessibility checkers: accessible practice (LX resource)