Microsoft Word

USING THIS PAGE

Expand each section below to learn the important accessibility elements to check for in this software, and how to use these standards in your documents.

Word Cheatsheet

All Microsoft Office products come with built-in accessibility tools that help users evaluate how accessible their documents are.

Here is Microsoft's guide for improving document accessibility with the Microsoft Accessibility Checker.

For more on Word specifically, visit the Microsoft Support page making your Word documents accessible to people with disabilities.

• Heading Levels are used correctly

  What to look for:

  • Every Word doc should include a Heading 1.
    • Tip: Use additional headings for documents over three pages.
  • Organize headings in order and avoid skipping levels.
    • (H3 only after using H2, etc.)
  • "Normal" refers to regular text without any headings and is the default text style.
  • Break up the page content into smaller sections for better readability.

  Document headings can improve the overall 'scannability' of your documents, but their ultimate purpose is for structure, not style.  Once your Headings are applied correctly, you can use the regular document formatting tools to make styling adjustments if you prefer.

  How to apply Headings in Word:

  • Video: Improve Accessibility with Heading Styles
  • Text Guide: Adding Headings (Windows and Mac)

• Colors have sufficient contrast and are not used exclusively to convey information.

  What to look for:

  • Don’t rely on color alone to indicate actions, responses, or specific designations.
    • For example, avoid using colored text or highlighting as the only way to emphasize information.
  • Underlining and use of blue text should be reserved for hyperlinks only.

  How to check colors for appropriate contrast:

  • Use a tool like the WebAIM color checker or Color Contrast Analyzer to check for contrast (with a minimum ratio of 4.5:1)
  • Stick to using these "safe" colors in the Standard MS Office Theme:

  

  Hex Codes for safe colors:
  

  Blues: 44546a, 4472c4, 323f4f, 2f5496, 1f3864, 0070c0, 002060, 2e75b5, 1e4e79, 222a35

  Grays: 595959, 3f3f3f, 262626, 0c0c0c, 171616, 3a3838

  Greens: 538135, 375623

  Reds/Oranges: c00000, 833c0b, 7f6000

• Images contain meaningful alt text

  Alt text should be short but meaningful and explain the purpose of an image.

  What to look for:

  • Images are included “in line” rather than wrapped in text.
    • 
  • For images of text, include a text-based equivalent.
  • If the information is already included in the document text, mark the image as decorative.
    • Decorative images should be labeled as such, not skipped.

  

  When writing alt text, try asking yourself:

  1. If I remove this image from the document, what text would I add instead?
  2. How would I explain the purpose and function of the image to someone over the phone?

  How to add alt text to different Word elements:

  • Video: Improving Accessibility with Alt Text
  • Text Guide: Everything you need to know to write effective alt text
  • Text Guide: Add alt text to images
    • Add alt text to SmartArt graphics

• Text formatting supports readability

  Well-formatted text won’t slow down anyone’s reading speed, including people with low vision, reading disabilities, or those who are blind.

  What to look for:

  • Break up large blocks of text with line breaks, paragraph breaks, and lists when appropriate.
    • Text Guide: How 'Chunking' Information Helps Cognitive Load
  • Document text should have a minimum font size of 9pt.
    
    • (12pt is standard for printing while 16pt is common for websites.)
  • Whenever possible, use a default sans serif font like Arial, Aptos or Calibri.
    • Text Guide: Change the default font in Word

• Links use meaningful text to ‘self-describe’

  What to look for:

  A "self-describing link" is one where the purpose of the link can be understood just from the link text. Avoid using unnecessary phrases like "click here" or "more" as link text in most cases.

  For example:

  • Self-describing: Learning how to write proper link text can be confusing, but you can learn more by visiting Oregon State University's guide to descriptive links.
  • NOT-describing: Learning how to write proper link text can be confusing, but to learn more, click here.

  Self-describing links are crucial for screen readers and help all users understand the purpose and context of the information presented.

  In most cases, the proper link text is probably already in your content, and it just needs to be emphasized as the link.
  
  For example, if the title on the hyperlink's destination page gives an accurate summary of what’s on the page, use it for the hyperlink text.

  How to create accessible hyperlinks:

  • Video:  Create accessible links in Word
  • Text Guide: Create or Edit hyperlinks in Word

• Tables and lists are accessible

  Tables

  What to look for:

  Avoid using tables to organize or structure information; numbered or bulleted lists and paragraphs with Headings are generally more accessible.

  It might be tempting to use an 'invisible' table to arrange content on a page, but avoid this - it can mess up the reading order for screen readers. 

  How to make accessible tables:

  • Video: Creating accessible tables in Word
  • Designating a Header Row
  • If setting a specific table width, use a percentage vs. fixed width
    • 
  • Add a Table Title and Alt Text in the Properties menu

  Lists

  Lists can be a more accessible alternative to simple tables and help make text content easier to read for all users.

  • Use the list tool to format your lists correctly; avoid using the number keys and spacebar to create them.
  • Consider the content: the two most common types are ordered and unordered.
    • Use ordered lists (numbers or alphabetical sequences) when the order of the items is important.
    • Use unordered lists (bullets or dashes) when the order doesn't matter.