Creating accessible Microsoft Word documents

It’s important to make Word documents accessible to everyone, even if you're using them internally.

Steps to take

1. Write in plain language
2. Make sure your text is legible
3. Structure your document
4. Make sure any hyperlinks or tables are accessible
5. Add alternative text to visual content
6. Run the Accessibility Checker 

Make your content legible

Some text is easier for people to read: 

• Use a size 12 point font or larger
• Use a sans serif font like BC Sans, Arial or Calibri 
• Use at least 1.5 line spacing
• Do not write in all capital letters
• Do not use bold unless you're using it to emphasize a few words or a short sentence
• Avoid italics, they're difficult to read
• Only underline text if it's a hyperlink
• When using a text colour other than black, test the colour contrast to make sure it's easy to read (Microsoft recommends the free app Colour Contrast Analyser)
• Do not use colour alone to convey meaning as it may not be visible to people who are colour blind and will not be communicated to someone using a screen reader. For example: writing in red to indicate something is important

Structure your content

People and assistive technologies scan written content for headings. Headings provide context for people to decide if information is relevant to them or not.

• Use a formatted title at the start of your document. Do this by selecting 'Title' in the 'Styles' tab
• Break content into manageable chunks using headings and sub-headings
• New topics should use 'Heading 1 (H1)'
• ​Subtopics within a section can be divided using 'Heading 2 (H2),' 'Heading 3 (H3)' and 'Heading 4 (H4)'
• Write short, clear headings that describe the content
• Use sentence case for headings (start with a capital letter, the rest should be lower case)
• Use bulleted lists to make content easier to scan. Only use numbered lists to show ordered steps

Watch Microsoft’s video on improving heading accessibility.

Use descriptive hyperlinks

Hyperlink keywords that describes where the link goes. For example: don’t use ‘click here’ or ‘read more’.

Add ScreenTips that provide a description when your cursor hovers over a hyperlink.

How to: File > Options > General > ScreenTips Style > Show Feature Descriptions in ScreenTips > OK

Watch Microsoft’s video on creating accessible links.

Add alternative text to visual content

Visual content includes graphics, images, pictures, SmartArt, shapes, groups, charts and embedded objects.

Alternative text (alt-text) helps people who cannot see the visual content understand its context. 

Think how you would describe the image to someone over the phone.

• Right click on the image
• Select ‘Edit Alt-Text’
• Write a short description of the image (5 to 10 words)

If the image you're using does not convey any additional information and is purely decorative. You can select the ‘Mark as decorative’ check box.

To find all instances of missing alt-text use the Accessibility Checker.

Watch Microsoft’s video on improving accessibility with alt text.

Using tables

• Do not use tables as a layout, they should only be used for tabular data 
• Use table headers to clearly identify the content in rows and columns
• Avoid merging, splitting or leaving blank cells in a table
• Add alt-text to your table

Watch Microsoft’s videos on: 

• Creating accessible tables in Word

Run the Accessibility Checker

Microsoft provides an Accessibility Checker to help you identify issues. This is meant to support you, not to replace your own accessibility check. Once you have followed the steps outlined on this page, use the Accessibility Checker for a quick review.

Publishing on the web

Documents can be difficult to view on mobile devices. Do not only publish content in a Word document on the web, it should also be available in HTML.

Resources

• Write Accessible PDFs
• Review Microsoft guide on making Word documents more accessible (external link)
• Watch Microsoft’s videos on creating accessible Word documents (external link)