Creating an Accessible Word Document

Electronic Information Resource Accessibility Team

Why Is Document Accessibility Important?

v Improved quality of life for those with accessibility needsv Equal access to information is a civil rightv Accessible documents follow standard practices, allowing easy style

updates and accurate conversions to other document formatsv University policy and state law require that content presented on

websites be accessible

General

vMany web accessibility rules apply to Word documentsvMain goal: All information is accessible to all peoplev Take advantage of built - in Word features, do not create structural

elements such as lists, headings, footers, etc. manually.

When Is It Appropriate to Use a Word Document?

HTML web content is almost always more accessible than documents. Use documents only when appropriate or necessary.

Appropriate uses of Word documents:– Personal use– One - time use, sent to a small,

known group of people– Collaborative projects– Providing document templates– Maintaining a document that

changes often

Poor uses of Word documents:– Information distribution– Forms– Document available to the public

v Title is not the same as the filename

v File > Info > Properties > Titlev Titles are read by screen

readers when a document is first opened and help provide context about the subject matter

v Add a title the first time you save your document

Add a Title to your Document

Text Style

v Use standard fonts and avoid serif fonts if the document will be widely used in a digital format

v Generally 10-12pt at smallest, depending on font and usagev Never use color alone to indicate important information

– Color can be used if it is accompanied by a non - color indicator (also applies to charts)

v Use the Word list feature to create lists vMark all lists as lists v Lists do not need bullet points

Lists

v Headings are critical for document accessibilityv Headings and other styles are selected using the Styles barv Use headings to create a content hierarchy. Do not skip levels when

going down a level (e.g. h2 down to h3 only, but h3 up to h1 is fine)v Only use styles that match the purpose of the text. Do not use styles

for visual effects.v Proper headings benefit all users!

Headings and Formatting Styles

v Use Navigation Pane to check the structure of your document

- To enable the Navigation Pane, navigate to the View tab and select the Navigation Pane checkbox

The Navigation Pane

Steps to change the Appearance of Styles

v Highlight the header text v Select the desired header style from the style menu v Right - click on the desired header level and select update heading to match

selection by left clickingThe following slide has a visual representation of these steps.

Visual Representation for Changing the Appearance of Styles

A decorative image

Right - click on images to easily add alt - text and make the image in-line with text

v Images should have alt text or a caption that describes the image

v Images should be in-line with text.– Exception: Purely decorative images

do not require alt text or to be in-line

Images – Alt Text and Captions

This complex image contains data that should be added to the Word document as a table

v Whenever possible, do not use complex images — the content of the image can be added directly to the document

v Alt text may be used to describe the image if it can be done in under 150 characters

v If the description would take more than 150 characters, the image must be described in - line, or a link to the information must be provided

Complex Images

Tables

v Tables should only be used to display tabular data, not to control layout

v Use the built-in Word features to create tablesv Add captions to tables as necessaryv Repeat header rows should be enabled on all tables

– Repeat header rows adds a copy of the headers to each new page the table is on.

– To enable: Layout - > Data - > Repeat header rows

Table Configuration

v Use the Columns button under the Layout tab to select different layouts

v Do not use tables to create columnar layouts

Column Layouts

Hyperlinks

v Link text should make sense without context – Refrain from links text that says, “click here”, “learn more” or other

generalized statements that have no meaning without context v All URLs should be hyperlinksv Avoid using URLS as link text

Exporting to a PDF

v All Word documents posted online should be made available as a PDFv Save a Word document as a PDF by using the "Save as Adobe PDF"

option from the File menu.

Other

v Files should have a meaningful namev The easiest way to make an accessible PDF is to convert from an

accessible Word documentv Use the Word Accessibility Checker

– File -> Check for Issues -> Check Accessibility