Word Documentation

Accessibility Features

Word documents that are mostly simple text, perhaps with headings and images, and a few other basic features, can be accessible. Complex Word documents will need to be touched up in other formats. Important: some accessibility features are unavailable if a document is published in native Word format.

Simple Documents Are Relatively Easy to Make Accessible

Simple Word documents can meet accessibility guidelines, and users with disabilities will be able to read the document, especially when exported to other formats. No touch-up is required when exporting to other formats.

A simple document can include:

• Text
• Headings
• Images with alt text
• Data tables with a first row of column headers

Complex Documents Must Be Touched-up for Accessibility

Complex Word documents require a workflow in which you create the document in Word, export it, then touch it up and add accessibility features in the exported document. This requires added work but can be managed.

A complex document can include:

• Text boxes
• Data tables with row headers or multiple layers of headers
• Any floating elements in the drawing layer, such as charts, word art, "shapes," SmartArt, etc.
• Math expressions
• Headers or footers

Final Format is Something Other than Word

You may want to post the original Word document on the web, but generally other formats are more appropriate. For the benefit of the broadest range of users, you should probably export the file to HTML.The basic workflow for accessible documents on the web from Word is this:

1. Create Word document incorporating accessibility features within the limitations of Word.
2. Export to another format with more accessibility features (HTML, PDF, EPUB, etc.).
3. Touch up the exported file, adding any remaining necessary accessibility features.

Recommendation: Consider Alternatives to Word

The process of writing in Word, exporting to a different format, then adding accessibility features to the exported file, is tedious and labor-intensive. If you ever change the original Word document, you'll have to go through the entire process of exporting and adding accessibility features all over again in the exported version. Multiple steps would be unnecessary if you created the original document in HTML format instead of Word.

Accessibility Checker

Accessibility Checker will report possible accessibility challenges in any Word document. This provides an opportunity to fix issues so someone with a disability can access and read content.

Accessibility Checker Can Find Only a Few Accessibility Problems

The Accessibility Checker is a good place to start checking for accessibility but use caution as the checker may not find all accessibility issues as human judgment is often needed to ensure it is fully accessible.

The Accessibility Checker checks your file against a set of possible issues that people who have disabilities might experience in your file. Each issue is classified as an Error, Warning, or Tip.

• Error: An error is for content that makes a file very difficult or impossible for people with disabilities to understand.
• Warning: A warning is for content that in most, but not all, cases makes a file difficult for people with disabilities to understand.
• Tip: A tip is for content that people with disabilities can understand, but that might be better organized or presented in a way that would improve their experience.

Fixing some issues might require you to change, reformat, or update your content.

Using the Accessibility Checker

To use the Accessibility Checker:

1. Click File > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility
2. The Accessibility Checker task pane showing results of Accessibility Check appears.
3. Click a specific issue to see Additional Information and steps you can take to change the content.

Structural & Semantic Elements

Word documents with poor structure reduces the quality of life for people with disabilities. A document with poor structure can be difficult to navigate and read, and possibly whole sections may be missing or unavailable to a person with a screen reader.

Headings

Headings are used to break up content and make finding information easier. People who use screen readers frequently start reading a document by first listening to the headings, to find out what's in the document. This helps them understand what the document is about and how it is organized.

Create Headings with Word Styles

Big Bold Text Does NOT Count!

Assistive technology cannot infer meaning from just formatting (such as large, bold, or underlined text). Styles create a structure that assistive technology can quickly access.

Mark Text as a Heading

Go to Home > Styles and use styles when creating Headings in your document.

To use Styles, you can either:

1. Click on the style you want and then type your heading, OR
2. Type your heading and then click on the style you want to use.

Verify that the Headings Show in the Navigation Pane (Document Map Sidebar)

Verify headings show in the headings list in the Navigation Pane or Document Map Pane in the Sidebar. You can use the Navigation Pane to go to specific parts of the document by clicking on or selecting the heading.

Modify Heading Styles (Optional)

You can modify styles so that you can create the look and feel you want in your document by right-clicking on the style's name, then selecting "Modify." This will bring up a dialog allowing you to change the look of the headings.

Once you assign a style using this method, all headings at this level will have the same visual appearance, making it much easier to maintain a consistent look throughout the document.

Accessibility Tip: Nest headings properly (e.g., the sub-headings of a "Heading 1" are "Heading 2", etc.). Do not skip heading levels. The headers convert to accessible tags when the Word document is converted to PDF.

Table of Contents

Table of contents helps readers see an outline of the content. Word creates a table of contents based on the heading structure of the document, so proper heading structure is important. Screen readers can read the table of contents, so it is helpful for navigating within the document.

To generate a table of content, apply styles to the headings that are to be included in the table of contents. After you apply these styles, you can then create a table of contents with a few simple steps.

To Insert a Table of Contents

1. Place the cursor in your document where you want to create the table of contents
2. Go to menu item: References
3. In the Table of Contents section, select Table of Contents
4. Select the style that you want to use

To Update a Table of Contents

1. Select the table
2. Go to menu item: References
3. In the Table of Contents section, select the Update Table button

Language

In order for assistive technologies to be able to read documents accurately, the language of the document must be indicated. If a different language is used for a paragraph or selected text, this also needs to be indicated. The specified document language is also used by the spelling and grammar checker.

1. Go to the File menu
2. Select Options from the list in the left window pane
3. Select Language from the list in the left of the Options dialog
4. Under Choose Editing Languages, select the editing language you want to use.
5. Select Set as Default

Accessibility Tip: Setting the language in Word helps when you convert the document to PDF.

Headers and Footers

Some screen readers will automatically read header and footer information. Others require the user to navigate to the header or footer and manually “ask” for them to be read. Others leave headers and footers out completely. To be on the safe side, it’s important to mark header and footer information somewhere else in the text, whether it be parenthetical citations, your contact information, or other information.

Floating Objects

Floating Objects Decrease Accessibility

Some types of objects (text boxes, word art, etc.) in Word are not part of the document's normal structure. They are on a separate "Drawing Layer" in that is unavailable to screen readers in the normal document flow. Text wrap also moves objects out of the text layer into the drawing layer.

Screen reader users can read floating objects at their "anchor" or insertion point, but when the objects are out of the normal flow, they may not make sense out of context. It may not be apparent where in the document these objects belong, making it difficult for users to understand the meaning of the document and/or the floating objects.

Examples of objects that may be floating in the Drawing Layer:

• Text boxes (Insert > Text Box)
• Shapes (Insert > Shapes)
• Smart Art (Insert > SmartArt)
• Charts (Insert > Chart)
• Word Art (Insert > WordArt)
• Miscellaneous objects (Insert > Object)

Inline Objects Are More Easily Accessible

Objects can be inserted inline with the text, and can therefore be read in the flow of the document by screen readers, but the results will vary from one screen reader to another. You may have to change the formatting of the object yourself to remove it from the Drawing Layer and put it inline with the text.

To move an object from the Drawing Layer to the Document Layer in Word 2013, select the object, right click on the Layout icon to the right of the object, then select "In Line with Text"

Note: Putting the object inline with the text may not achieve the visual effect you want. You may want to use an object that isn't inline with the text. If that's the case, you'll need to describe the object in the text of the document, for the benefit of screen reader users.

Footnotes and Endnotes

If your document contains footnotes or endnotes be sure that you use the footnote or endnote insertion tool on the References Tab. This will result in an accessible reference that can be navigated and read by users of screen readers.

Footnotes are ignored by screen readers when reading the main content of the document, but if users choose to go into the footnote, the screen reader will read them. Endnotes are read as normal text.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Acronyms and abbreviations simplify long phrases, words or titles. They can be confusing for people who aren't familiar with them or have trouble seeing or understanding them.

Providing an explanation of acronyms and abbreviations in the document might help people who:

• have difficulty decoding words
• use screen readers
• have limited memory
• have difficulty using context to aid understanding

Example: MCCCD (Maricopa County Community College District)

Columns

Screen readers read everything in a linear order as if it were in one column, so don’t rely on the visual aspects of column formatting to convey information. Using columns is fine for accessibility as long as you use the Column insertion tool on the Page Layout tab. Columns created without this tool will be read improperly by screen readers. For example, if a user creates columns using spacebar or tab keys, the screen reader will read the first line of the left column then the first line of the right column, which would not make sense to the reader.

Links

There are two main principles for making accessible hyperlinks in Word:

1. Write meaningful link text that gives an indication of the purpose of the link. Avoid phrases that don't make sense out of context, such as "click here," "here," "read more," etc.
2. Include the full hyperlink in the document, so that users can copy and paste it if necessary, and to allow people to type in the link if they receive the Word document printed on paper rather than in electronic format.

Example: In the following example, the link phrase itself ("Explore classes") makes sense when read out of context, and the full web address is available when the document is printed on paper.

Explore classes that Maricopa Community Colleges has to offer. (https://www.maricopa.edu/become-a-student/explore-classes)

To add hyperlinks with meaningful text:

1. Type a web address and press spacebar or "Enter" to convert into a hyperlink.
2. Select the link and right-click.
3. Select Edit Hyperlink.
4. Edit the text in the "Text to display" or "Display" box.

Superscripts & Subscripts

Screen readers generally ignore superscript and subscript formatting, they just read the text normally. There isn't much that can be done to change this. In fact, the problem also occurs in HTML, PDF, and other formats. Screen readers have not yet updated their algorithms to take superscripts and subscripts into account.

• H2O is read as "H two O."
• e=mc2 is read as "E equals M C two."

Math is a bit of an exception. If you create math using MathML in a tool such as MathType, screen readers can read the math effectively, including superscript and subscript notation. Refer to the Math and Equations section for more information.

Page Numbers

Numbering the pages of a document helps those reading and editing the document effectively navigate and reference its content. For users of assistive technologies, it provides a valuable point of reference within the document.

Note: If you insert the page numbers in the header or footer, which is generally the recommended practice, not all screen readers announce the presence of headers and footers, which means some screen reader users will not be aware that the document has page numbers.

To Insert Page Numbers:

1. Go to menu item: Insert.
2. In the Header & Footer section, select Page Number.
3. Select where you would like to insert your page numbers.
4. Select the style of page number you would like to use.

Styles & Appearance

Don't rely on styles to convey meaning. Screen readers don't read or announce colors, backgrounds, font styles, borders, visual layout, font size, font style, etc. You can and should use visual styling, but only for a purely visual aspect. Always include a text-based method of conveying meaning that screen readers can speak out loud.

Think structure and semantics first, then apply visual styles. Screen readers depend on document structure to convey meaning to users. Headings is particularly important. Style the headings as needed, but make sure they are real headings that display in the Navigation Pane or Outline View.

Paragraph Styles

Working with styles is similar to working with CSS in HTML documents, in that you can create a global style that applies throughout the entire document. You can change the style of any objects which will update the visual appearance of all. You can create custom styles for all kinds of objects, even if they're not accessibility-related. For example, a research paper can have one style for regular text, another style for the abstract, and another style for the text references at the end.

Note: If you want to save the style for all future documents, you can check the "New documents based on this template" radio button. Use this option carefully, though. You probably don't want your default blank document in Word to be too specialized.

Customizing Styles

The styles are available in the Home ribbon in Word. To customize a style, right-click on the style, then choose "Modify." A dialog will open up with a wealth of formatting options.

Options available in Word styles include: fonts and font size, bold, underline, italic, tabs, borders, line spacing and line justification... and more

Color Contrast

Ensure Good Color Contrast

Avoid low contrast between text and background. The visual presentation of text and images of text should have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1. To help you determine the contrast, here are some examples on a white background:

• Very good contrast (Foreground=black, Background=white, Ratio=21:1)
• Acceptable contrast (Foreground=#767676, Background=white, Ratio=4.54:1)
• Unacceptable contrast (Foreground=#AAAAAA, Background=white, Ratio=2.32:1)

Is the last line of text above very easy to read?

Also, always use a single solid color for a text background rather than a pattern.

Background Colors

• Background colors can be acceptable, as long as there is still sufficient contrast between the background and the text.
• Avoid strong background gradients or patterns. They can make the text harder to read and can be distracting for some people. Subtle gradients may be acceptable.

Color to Convey Meaning

Avoid Visual-Only Cues

Color should not be used as the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element. Those with color-blindness will have difficult determining of content with color as the only indicator. In order to spot where color might be the only visual means of conveying information, print the document on a black and white printer and see if there is any missing information. Make sure to add other indicators to make clear of meaning of content.

Bad Example

Racers listed in red made the Olympic team:

• John Doe
• Jack Sprat
• Billy Bob

Good Example

Racers listed in red made the Olympic team:

• John Doe
• Jack Sprat (Olympic Team)
• Billy Bob

The table below is another good example of using color and text to convey information. Color coding is used, for the benefit of sighted users, and text is used, for broader accessibility (Green = "On Time", Yellow="At Risk", Red="Late").

Borders

Borders — on the whole page, on paragraphs, on tables, on table cells, on text boxes, on columns, etc. — can be an effective way to group information or draw attention to it visually, but screen readers don’t acknowledge borders, so don’t rely on borders alone to convey information.

At a structural and semantic level, use headings — either instead of or in addition to borders — to group sections of content.

Line Height

Increasing the line spacing to 1.5 lines or 2 lines can increase the readability, especially for readers with dyslexia or other reading disorders who may lose track of their place on the page.

Text is hard for some people to read when the line spacing is set too close together. The whole experience is visually not very pleasing, and it can slow down readers quite a lot, especially if they have reading disorders.

Line Justification

Whenever possible, avoid full line justification. It is easier on readers when there is a jagged edge of text on the right side of the page. Lines that are justified on the right make it harder on readers to keep track of their location on the page. This is particularly true for readers with certain forms of dyslexia and other reading disorders.

Full justification also can create unnaturally large or small spaces between words, making the visual flow more difficult to follow.

Flashing or Blinking Animations

It is not too common to see blinking objects in a Word document but still critical to understand that text and objects that blink or flash can cause photosensitive epileptic seizures in susceptible individuals, particularly if the flash has a high intensity and is in the frequency range between 2 Hz and 55 Hz (meaning that it flashes or blinks between 2 times per second and 55 times per second). This includes flashing text, turning graphics on and off repeatedly, changing between different images on the screen, and other animations or visual transitions.

Text & Fonts

There are several options for styling text, but for the most part, the visual appearance of these options is ignored by screen readers, so you can't rely on the visual appearance to convey meaning.

Fonts and Typography

Both Serif and Sans-Serif are Acceptable

Sans-serif fonts like Arial are plain, without embellishments. Serif fonts, like Times New Roman, have embellishments that are designed to keep the eyes focused on the proper line of text. Researchers have conducted studies of many kinds to see if there is a significant difference between serif and sans-serif fonts in terms of readability, and they generally produce mixed or inconclusive results, so there doesn't seem to be a reliable answer as to which kind of font is better. Choose common fonts, and you'll likely be fine.

Avoid Overly-Decorative Fonts

Overly decorative fonts can be difficult to read, especially for people with dyslexia or other reading conditions.

If you feel you must use fancy fonts, use them sparingly — just on a heading or document title, for example — and ensure the font size is larger than average (e.g. approximately 18pt font or larger).

Font Size

In general, it is best to avoid font sizes smaller than 10 points, but Word comes with the ability to zoom the document, so font size is not always a critical accessibility issue. The less zooming they have to do, though, the better.

Capitalization

Screen Readers Ignore Capitalization

EVEN THOUGH THIS SENTENCE IS IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, SCREEN READERS DON'T READ IT ANY DIFFERENTLY THAN REGULAR TEXT.

Screen readers generally ignore capitalization, so you can't rely on capitalized letters to emphasize text. The only time that screen readers distinguish between lowercase and uppercase letters is when users listen to the spelling of the word one character at a time, then the screen reader speaks capitalized letters in a higher, louder tone. Otherwise, capitalization doesn't make a difference at all.

Too Much Capitalization Is Hard to Read

Putting a whole sentence or paragraph in all caps makes the text visually more difficult to read. It slows down the reader. For this reason alone, it's best to avoid all caps in nearly all circumstances.

Bold, Italic, Underline

Bold Can Help Emphasize Text for Sighted Users

Bold draws attention to words or phrases. If you use bold text sparingly, it can draw visual attention to important words or phrases. This can be especially helpful for users with reading disorders who may get lost in the words. Italicized and underlined text also draw attention to the words, but to a lesser degree.

Screen Readers Ignore Bold, Italic, and Underline

Visual formatting does not help emphasize text for blind users. Screen readers ignore all text formatting of this type, unless the user has explicitly changed the settings in the screen reader to read visual formatting. Hardly anybody does this though, and if they do, they usually do it only temporarily. So, under all but the rarest conditions, screen readers simply read the text normally, no matter what the visual styling looks like.

Don't rely on visual formatting to convey reading to screen reader users. You could say that the extra emphasis is an optional enhancement, and that may be true in a lot of cases. If the emphasis is critically important, though, you'll need to write text to convey the emphasis, such as by adding the word "Important" or "Note" before the emphasized content.

Too Much Bold, Italic, or Underline Makes the Text Harder to Read

Use bold, italic, and underline sparingly. Too much bold or italic text can make a document difficult to read, especially for someone who already has a hard time reading, such as someone with a reading disability.

People May Think Underlined Text Is a Link

Use underline sparingly. These days, in our web-saturated world, users may think the text is a link.

Strike-through

Unfortunately, screen readers don't read strike-through accurately. They treat it as regular text unless the user changes the settings in the reader, and hardly anybody changes those particular settings. This oversight is particularly bad, because strike-through usually conveys important meaning, especially in legal documents. Screen readers need to change their behavior in this regard, but until they do, you have to be aware that the meaning of strikethrough text likely will be lost on screen reader users.

If Necessary, Give Instructions to Screen Reader Users

One thing you could do is give screen reader users instructions to turn on their font styles in their screen reader to ensure that strikeout text will be read accurately.

Highlighting

Don't Rely on Highlighting Alone to Convey Meaning

Under normal circumstances, screen readers do not convey any information about highlighting to blind users. In some screen readers, users can choose to have their screen reader speak the visual styles of text (bold, underline, colors, etc.), but not all screen readers have this capability, and none of the screen readers have this feature turned on by default. In fact, hardly any screen reader users ever turn on this feature, because it usually speaks too much irrelevant information, and it can be hard to tell the difference between meaningful styles and styles used purely for visual decoration, with no meaning attached to them.

Ways to "Highlight" Content for Blind Users

• Write the word "important" (or similar): The most reliable way to "highlight" text for blind users is to write some text in the document that draws attention to the content.
• Hidden text: If you don't want to add any visual words to the document, you could add some hidden text just for screen reader users. To add hidden text, set the color of the text to the same color of the background, then shrink the text size very small. The big danger of this technique is that the text might get accidentally deleted, moved, or altered, especially if the final format of the document is MS Word format. If the final format is PDF or EPUB or some other read-only format, the risk is lower.

Highlighting Can Be Beneficial for Sighted Users

Despite the weakness of highlighting for blind users, highlighting can be effective for visual users, because it draws their attention to important parts of the document. This can actually be an accessibility benefit for sighted users, especially users with reading disorders or cognitive disabilities.

Use highlighting where appropriate. Just be sure to supplement it with text that conveys the same meaning, for the benefit of blind users.

Drop Cap

Adding a drop cap effect separates the letter from the rest of the word. The letter is still read, but separately, so the word is broken into pieces, rather than being read as a single word. Avoid drop caps.

Symbols & Special Characters

Some common symbols are accessible to screen readers and are read correctly.

Examples: $ ¢ £ ¥ € © ® & ½ ¾

The vast majority of other symbols are not read correctly. When you use symbols, you may need to provide a text explanation for the benefit of screen reader users.

Word Art

Avoid Word Art for these reasons:

• Word Art removes the text from the flow of the document.
• Objects in the drawing layer (such as Word Art) are not announced to screen readers.
• The artistic effects make the text difficult to read, especially for people with low vision.

If you must use Word Art (which you don’t), consider using Text Effects instead, because Text Effects are more easily available to screen readers. It's also possible to add alt text to Word Art (right click on borders > Format shape > Alt text > Description), but the alt text is not always easily readable to screen readers, so it doesn't really solve the problem.

Text Effects

The Text Effects look identical to Word Art (the visual effects make the letters look like they are glowing, or have shadows, or reflections, or indentations, etc.), but Text Effects are applied to the regular text layer of the document rather than to the drawing layer of the document, so, somewhat surprisingly, the "text effect" feature in Word is readable by screen readers. Even so, the extra styling decreases readability, especially for people with low vision, so it's best to avoid Text Effects.

Text Boxes

Avoid using text boxes. Screen readers do not read or announce text boxes, so the user is not informed that there even are any text boxes in the document. Screen readers cannot access the text box in the normal reading flow of the document when the text box is floating or when the text wraps around it. Therefore, screen reader users must press a hot key to then read each text box separately, which may not make sense when taken out of context. Not all screen reader users even know the hot key. For JAWS it is Control + Shift + O (to get a list of objects).

If you must use text boxes (which you don’t), there are two main best practices to keep in mind:

1. Provide alt text for them (right-click on text box border > Format shape > Alt text > Description).
2. Don't position them to float or wrap the text. Instead, position them inline with the text, which places them flush left with the margin. This will enable JAWS (but not other screen readers) to read the text boxes in the flow of the regular document.

Positioning Text Boxes Inline

You can position text boxes inline for the benefit of JAWS users as follows:

1. Click on the text box.
2. Select Page Layout > Position > In Line with Text.

Fixing Floating Text Boxes After Export

If you have floating text boxes, you will need to touch-up the accessibility of the content within them after exporting them to another format, such as HTML, EPUB, or PDF. In fact, in some cases the content within the text box may not export at all, and you may need to insert the content after the fact. The main point is that you will need to fix text boxes after exporting to the final format.

Images, Shapes, Smart Art, etc.

Images and illustrations can increase reader comprehension, when used wisely. They can especially benefit users with cognitive disabilities or reading disorders. Just be sure to provide a text alternative for all images, for the benefit of screen reader users.

Also be wary of floating objects in Word's drawing layer, which are not available to screen readers in the normal flow of the document, and are not available at all to some brands of screen readers.

Alt Text

Images often can convey important information. Screen readers cannot infer meaning from images alone. The alt text only takes a few seconds to add to an image. This accessibility addition is not seen by a sighted reader.

Adding Alt Text

To add alt text right-click and select Format Picture/Object/Chart > Alt Text, and in "Description:" enter information that states the purpose and/or function of the object (in about 250 characters or fewer) for a meaningful image or object.

Note: There is an option to add both a "Title" and a "Description" to the image. The "Title" is not always read by screen readers, and not always exported as expected into other formats, so you should use the "Description" option instead.

Ensure Alt Text Is Accurate and Meaningful

It is critical that you provide accurate text descriptions that give a blind person enough information to understand the image and its purpose in the document.

The alt attribute should typically:

• Be accurate and equivalent in presenting the same content and function of the image.
• Be succinct. This means the correct content (if there is content) and function (if there is a function) of the image should be presented as succinctly as is appropriate. Typically, no more than a few words are necessary, though rarely a short sentence or two may be appropriate.
• Give blind users a functional equivalent or substitute for the image.
• Convey the purpose of the image — why you put the image in the document — rather than just the purely visual irrelevant aspects of the image
• Include any text which happens to be in the image.
• NOT be redundant or provide the same information as text within the context of the image.
• NOT use the phrases "image of ..." or "graphic of ..." to describe the image. It is usually apparent to the user that it is an image. And if the image is conveying content, it is typically not necessary that the user know that it is an image that is conveying the content, as opposed to text. If the fact that an image is a photograph or illustration, etc. is important content, it may be useful to include this in alternative text.

Avoid Floating Images with Text Wrap, If Possible

Floating objects with text wrap are less accessible to screen readers than objects that are inline with the text. Fortunately, the default position of images when you insert them is inline with the text. To convert a floating image into an inline image, do the following:

1. Click on the image or object.
2. Click on the Layout Options icon to the right of the image (or Page Layout > Position in the Word Menu)
3. Select "In Line with Text"

Long Descriptions

Sometimes you need to use complex image like pie charts or bar graphs. Most objects allow alt text, but alt text is generally meant to be short. Plus, if the chart or graph is inserted as an object in Word's drawing layer, instead of in the natural flow of the text, some users won't be able to access the alt text anyway, or they may not know how to access the alt text.

There are several creative ways to provide long descriptive alternate text for complex graphics and objects.

• Describe the complex image in text below the image.
• Add a text link below the image to a textual description in an appendix.
• Provide an equivalent data table below the image.

Captions for Images

Word allows you to add a caption to an image, which is visible text in the document above or below the image. One benefit of using captions is that Word can automatically generate a Table of Figures with all of the image captions, referenced by number. If you use captions, alt text may not be necessary, but it depends on how you write the captions. Usually captions are not written as a substitute for an image for blind people. Captions are usually brief titles, sometimes with a number (such as "Figure 1"). The caption may be sufficient for a blind person, but often it is still necessary to add alt text to the image itself, for the benefit of blind readers.

You could also decide to describe the image in the surrounding paragraphs around an image, which would make the alt text unnecessary.

Exporting a Word Document with Image Captions

Captions and surrounding text can be acceptable ways to describe an image if the final output will be in Word format, but if you export to other formats (PDF, HTML, EPUB, etc.) you will need to add an alt attribute to the image, either with meaningful text or null alt text (alt="") if the caption conveys all of the necessary information for a blind person to understand the image.

Watermarks & Backgrounds

The basic accessibility principles for background images and watermarks are:

• Don't use background images or watermarks to convey information, because there is no way to provide alt text for background images (unless you also describe the background in the regular text of the document).
• Avoid watermarks that interfere with the readability of the text. If you have to indicate a DRAFT use the words in the title of the document instead of a watermark.

Smart Art

The Smart Art tool can be used to create diagrams, flow charts, illustrations, hierarchical organization charts, and other similar types of diagrams. It's a useful tool for simple drawings. Unfortunately, Smart Art is not directly accessible to screen reader users. The object would not be read when the user reads the document top to bottom. Therefore, it is recommended to not use Smart Art.

If you want to use objects made as Smart Art, you can either describe the Smart Art in the context of the text or convert the shapes to a single graphic and add alt text. The easiest way to convert them into a single image is to use the Snipping Tool, which you can find by performing a search  for "Snipping Tool".

To snip a single image simply add the Smart Art to your document, use the Snipping Tool to clip a single image, then delete the Smart Art and paste in the single image. Be sure to add alt text on the image.

Unfortunately, this action requires the use of a mouse.

Shapes

The "Shapes" tool in Word (Insert > Shapes) can be an easy way to superimpose illustrations and shapes on top of the text in the document. You can draw arrows, diagrams, and create simple artwork. This may be great for document authors, but it's not so great for screen reader users because all of the content is floating in the drawing layer, making it inaccessible to many screen readers.

The Individual Shapes May Not Be Meaningful, But the Overall Drawing May Be

If you draw a diagram with lots of arrows and artistic objects, each object on its own is probably not important to screen reader users. Blind users don't need to hear "line" or "left arrow" everywhere. They will probably have a hard time interpreting all of that anyway, because it probably relies on visual formatting to make sense. So even though it is possible to supply alt text on all of the individual drawing elements, you may not want to do that. It may be better to provide a text description in the text of the document instead.

You Could Provide Alt Text on Only One of the Objects

In some cases, it may make sense to provide alt text description on one of the objects and leave the others blank. This technique is really only useful if the object with alt text is inline with the text, and not in Word's floating Drawing Layer, due to the inherent problems with the Drawing Layer. Moving the shape from the Drawing Layer to the text layer will probably break the visual layout, though, so you have to be careful with this technique.

One option would be to create the "real" artwork in the drawing layer, then create a small shape inline with the text, with the sole purpose of adding alt text to describe the "real" artwork. You could even make the shape invisible to sighted users by removing the border and changing the fill color.

For Exporting to HTML and EPUB, You Could Take a Screenshot and Supply Alt Text

When exporting to HTML and EPUB, the original layout of the Word shapes will likely fall apart and lose all meaning (unless you have just one shape), so you may need to take a screenshot of your shape creation, then insert the screenshot into the HTML or EPUB, and supply alt text to describe the shapes.

TABLES

Data Tables

Word has Limited Support for Data Table Accessibility

You can create an accessible data table in Word if it meets these conditions:

• The table has one (and only one) row of column headers at the top (it must be the first row)
• The top row is marked as a header row
• There are no other header cells (Word can't handle a left column of row headers, for example)
• There are no merged cells
• There are no nested tables within the table
• The table was not created using the "Draw Table" option in Word (Insert > Table > Draw Table), which creates a graphic rather than a true table.

You Can Add Accessibility Features to Complex Tables After Exporting to Other Formats

If your end goal is to export the Word file to other formats that are more accessible, such as HTML, EPUB, or PDF, it's ok to create a complex table, as long as you finish making it accessible in the other format(s) before publishing the document.

Designate a Header Row

• Put the cursor in the first row of the table, then go to the "Table Tools" tab and select the "Header Row" checkbox OR
• Right-click on the appropriate row, choose Table Properties > Row > Repeat as header row at the top of each page — Doing this will inform the structure that this is the header row (even if it doesn't go on multiple pages).

Accessibility Tip: Doing this in Word will result in table headers already properly marked up in PDF.

This is an example of a simple table, as it has only one row of headers across the top.

This is an example of a complex table because it has multiple headers that go with one given data cell. This CANNOT be made accessible in Word, but you can touch it up in HTML, EPUB or PDF to make it more accessible.

If you get a document that has complex tables there is a way to "flatten" the table into a simple one. How would you do it for the above table?

One option would be to split the above table into two tables, which avoids the two main problems of 1) having a column of row headers on the side, and 2) having merged cells.

This solution won't work for all tables, but it's worth considering whenever possible. It will save you a lot of hassle when it comes to exporting to PDF format in particular. You can add the extra accessibility features to PDF files, but it's not a fast or easy process, and you have to do it every time you export the document, even if you didn't make any changes to the tables.

Layout Tables

Use Word's Styles as Much as Possible Before Resorting to Layout Tables

In the web world, using tables for layout purposes is highly frowned-upon. It's an outdated practice made obsolete by the powerful visual styling options in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). In the MS Word world, the styles are not nearly as powerful, but you should still use Word's styles as much as possible first. Then, for the things that Word's styles can't do, use layout tables.

Some of the layout features available in Word's styles include:

• Margins and padding around elements such as headings, paragraphs, list items, etc.
• Borders, including the ability to specify color, thickness, whether to include all borders or just some sides, etc.
• Tab stops
• Line spacing
• Indentation, including first-line indent, hanging indent, etc.
• "Frame," which refers to the ability to float items and have text wrap around them

For some reason, Word's "frame" style method of floating content (wrapping text) is safe for screen readers, whereas most other kinds of floating content cause problems for screen readers. So if you need to float text, use styles to do so, if you can.

Layout Tables Are an Acceptable Compromise

In a perfect world, you would be able to use Word's text boxes and other floating objects without any accessibility problems, which would avoid the need to use layout tables. But this isn't a perfect world. Sometimes you have to make compromises. Floating objects tend to create accessibility barriers in a Word document. When it comes to positioning content in a Word document, a layout table can be used in place of using floating objects.

To use a table for layout, create the table as you would normally (Insert > Table), then right click on the table and choose Table Properties (or put the cursor on the table and choose Table tools > Design from the Word menu). Then choose Borders and Shading (or Borders > Borders and Shading from the Word menu) and turn off the table borders by choosing "None" (or "No Border" in the Word menu).

Avoid Text Boxes, If Possible

Text boxes make visual layout easier in some ways, because you can just draw the text box and put content into it, but text boxes cause problems for screen readers, so it's best to avoid them if you can. Text boxes set to display inline with the text are more accessible, but they're also less useful for visual layout that way.

Charts & Graphs

For the most part, screen readers cannot access embedded charts and graphs directly, whether embedded as images, objects, spreadsheets, or other non-text format. You must provide alternative text that screen readers can access. Usually the alternative text for charts and graphs is quite long — longer than normal alt text — so you must provide an extended text description, as described in this section.

Charts

You can add a chart to a document using the Insert > Chart option. These charts are handy for authors because they uses an actual data table to build the chart, making it easily editable.

Ensure the Chart Is Positioned Inline with the Text

By default, charts are created inline with the text, which is good for screen reader users. Any time you make an object float in the Drawing Layer, you remove it from the flow of the text, making it difficult for screen readers to access. Avoid making the text wrap around the chart.

Provide Alt Text for the Chart as a Whole

You can provide alt text for the chart as a whole by selecting the chart, clicking on the "Chart Options" in the sidebar to the right of the chart, then clicking on the "Layout and Properties" icon, then adding alt text to the "Description" field (don't add it to the "Title" field).

There are lots of parts and pieces to a Chart object, including the label for the chart as a whole, the bars on a bar chart (or slices on a pie chart, etc.), axis labels, legends, and so on. In theory, all of these objects could be individually labeled with alt text, but that would probably be overkill and the result would probably be hard for a blind person to understand.

Note that some older versions of Word did not allow long alt text, and some older versions of screen readers did not read long alt text either, so it is wise to limit the number of characters in the alt text to a maximum of about 250 characters.

Provide a Detailed Long Text Description

Most charts will require a detailed explanation that is longer than a typical alt attribute. Some options for accomplishing this include the following:

• Write the full text description in the document itself.
• Add a data table with the original data points.
• Provide a separate document with long descriptions for the charts. Be sure to make it easy to identify which descriptions belong to which charts
• Create a link to a web page with a long description.

Converting Charts to Other Formats

When exporting to HTML, Word will convert a Chart to a simple PNG image, and will include any alt text that you added to the chart. You will still need to provide a long description for the chart.

When exporting to PDF format, Word will typically include all of the vector graphic information from the original Chart, which can be an overwhelming amount of irrelevant graphical information. You may still need to add the alt text. Some methods of conversion do not retain the original alt text value.

Embedded Objects

Writers can add objects (Insert > Object) to a Word document. The objects can be Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint slides, or various other kinds of documents. Some of these types of objects can be made accessible quite easily, such as regular images. Others, such as Excel worksheets, are very problematic for screen readers, with no apparent way of making them accessible. There is no way to add alt text to the object, and screen readers ignore it when reading through the document, even if the object is positioned inline with the text. In these cases, you will need to add alt text after converting the document to another format, and you will probably need to add a long description in the text of the document or in a separate document.

Math & Equations

There is a built-in equation editor in Word, but the editor currently does not render math in a format that is accessible to screen readers. It does not create MathML (Math Markup Language), and most kinds of math content created by the Equation Editor cannot be read intelligently (or at all) by screen readers.

Option 1: Use MathType to Create MathML in Word

One of the best tools for creating accessible math is the MathType Equation Editor by Design Science. MathType creates MathML, which can be read intelligently by screen readers, allowing users to either read the whole equation, or pause and zoom in on parts of the equation to read them separately. MathType is not free, but it is the most complete solution currently available.

Option 2: Use MathML Cloud to Create a PNG Image with Good Alt Text

If you don't have access to MathType, you could use MathML Cloud to generate an equation as a PNG image with good alt text, and insert the image in your Word document. You will need to insert the image then add the alt text yourself. MathML Cloud generates intelligent alt text that works well for math equations, using words and phrasing that you might not consider if you were writing the alt text yourself. Generally, we recommend that you not edit the alt text generated by MathML Cloud unless you are sure you can improve it for a specific equation.

There are two main disadvantages of using this method:

• You have to write the equation in ASCII text, MathML, or LaTex. If you're not familiar with writing math using those methods, you'll have to learn.
• Even good math alt text is not as effective as MathML, because users navigate math equations written as alt text in the same way they can navigate math equations in MathML.

Even with these disadvantages, an image with good alt text is better than the built-in Equation Editor.

Saving & Exporting

If Word (.docx or .doc) is not the final format that you want to present to readers, you'll need to convert it into some other format. Or sometimes you may need to present the file in multiple formats for different purposes.

No matter which format you export to, the more complex your original file is (text boxes, word art, graphs, tables, etc.), the more you'll have to touch it up and fix the accessibility problems in the exported file.

Which Format?

Word

Keeping the original document in Word format is best if the person must be able to edit the original document, but it is usually NOT a good idea otherwise, for several reasons: the recipient may not have Word installed, the recipient may not have the right fonts installed, opening Word from a web page may be a bit difficult in comparison to opening a web page itself, and, as mentioned previously, there are some accessibility features that are unavailable in the original document. Adding the accessibility features to an exported version in HTML, EPUB, or PDF format would give the disabled user a better experience.

HTML:

The best format for general accessibility is HTML, but you may lose some of the visual layout and styles of the original document.

EPUB 3

The best format for e-Readers is EPUB 3, which can be just as accessible as HTML. EPUB is especially good for users with low vision when the document allows both zoom and text reflow.

PDF

The best format to retain print-ready visual layout and styles is PDF. PDF files can also be quite accessible to screen readers on Windows, but screen reader accessibility on Macs and mobile devices is mediocre or non-existent in some cases. Rumors are that Adobe will release a version of Adobe Reader compatible with VoiceOver, but as of the time this course was written, they were just rumors.

Save as Word Document

Sharing a Word document in its native format is probably the safest way to go in a lot of ways, since there is no risk of anything being lost during any kind of conversion process (if the recipient has MS Word). Also, people who frequently use MS Office will be comfortable using this format, even with screen readers. Still, there are some potential downsides:

Not Everyone Has MS Word

These days, most people can access Word documents in one way or another, but some people still cannot. Perhaps they can't afford MS Office, or they are using a tablet or other mobile device without a Word reader, or they prefer to use a different word processor program, or they don't use any word processor at all. Whatever the reason, if the person does not have MS Word, they may not be able to open the document at all.

Complex Content in Word Documents

To remediate accessibility issues of complex content contained in Word documents, it is recommended that the Word document is converted into an HTML, PDF, or EPUB format. Once the document has been converted, the accessibility features for complex content can be applied. It will take extra work to convert the document, but the end result will increase enhance the accessibility of the original document.

Links to Word Documents on Websites Are Somewhat Intrusive

If the final location of the document is on a web site, it would probably be best to provide the document in HTML format for web browsing and give users the option to download it in the original Word format if they want. Otherwise, users are presented with a download dialog box, which interrupts the flow of web browsing. Users may not want to download a Word file, or they may not be on their own computer at the time, or they just don't want to have to open another software program in the middle of their web session.

Save as Web Page

Word Inserts Lots of Extra Code

If you use the regular "Save as Web Page" option in Word, it will save your document with a lot of extra HTML code that is frankly unnecessary, unless you plan on opening the HTML document in Word again at some point. The extra code helps preserve some of the Word formatting. However, it does not produce ideal source code.

The ugly source code isn't bad for accessibility, but you're probably better off using the option to "Save as Web Page, Filtered" instead.

Add a Page Title

When you choose the "Web Page" option from the Save menu, Word gives you an extra button to add a page title.

If you plan on posting the document in its entirety, without any modifications, you should definitely add the page title here. If you plan on copying and pasting the code into a content management system or some other template, then adding a page title here is unnecessary, since you will do that elsewhere. But again, if you're going to work with the HTML at all, you'll really want to use the "Save as Web Page, Filtered" instead, to give you cleaner code.

Save as Web Page, Filtered

The Filtered Option Creates Cleaner Code

The regular "Save as Web Page" option in Word creates too much extra markup for most purposes, so the "Save as Web Page, Filtered" is preferred for almost everything. Generally this option is sufficient for most things, but it can still get messy because if you plan to copy the markup into a content management system or a template, you'll need to copy all of the Word-generated styles into the style sheet or into the document head, plus you'll probably need to change the location of the images. You may also need to change special characters such as Word-specific dashes, quotation marks, apostrophes, or other special characters.

Use a Third-Party Tool to Clean the HTML

A number of third-party tools exist to clean Word HTML. It's a shame that programmers have had to go out of their way to create utilities like that, but the good news is that it is possible to get the markup even cleaner than the "Web Page, Filtered" option allows. Not all of these utilities were created with accessibility in mind, unfortunately, so no endorsement is implied.

Add a Page Title

When you choose the "Web Page, Filtered" option from the Save menu, Word gives you an extra button to add a page title.

If you plan on posting the document in its entirety, without any modifications, you should definitely add the page title here. If you plan on copying and pasting the code into a content management system or some other template, then adding a page title here is unnecessary, since you will do that elsewhere.

Single File Web Page

When you save a Word document as a "Single File Web Page," the final result is just one file, rather than an index page plus a folder full of images and style sheets, as is normally the case with the "Save as Web Page" or "Save as Web Page, Filtered" options. This is convenient, because it keeps everything together and makes it easy to send in an email or to archive a web page. The main drawback is that it only works in Internet Explorer.

The Single File Web Page Works Only in Internet Explorer

Mac users, mobile users, and everyone who doesn't have easy access to Internet Explorer will be unable to use the Word-generated Single File Web Page, so it's not a good format for general usage.

Save as PDF

Word to PDF Conversion Needs Touch-Up

Office 2013 (for Windows). As far as the built-in Word-to-PDF utility goes, the best version is in Office 2013, which is available only on Windows. Word 2013 creates a tagged PDF document with pretty good structure, and it retains the reading order in simple documents. Complex documents can be problematic, but that's going to be the case no matter what. You'll probably need to touch up the document in Acrobat Pro.

Office 2010 (for Windows) creates a tagged PDF file, but it often throws the images at the top of the document and has a few other oddities that make it less than ideal. You'll need to touch up the resulting PDF file in Acrobat Pro.

Office 2011 (Mac) does not create a tagged PDF at all, so it's not a good solution for creating PDF files.

For Best Results, Use the Acrobat Pro Add-on for Word on Windows

When you install Acrobat Pro on a Windows computer, it installs an add-on ribbon in Word with some utilities for Acrobat conversion. Using the Acrobat Pro utilities will give you the best results when converting to PDF format. You may still need to touch up the final result in Acrobat Pro, especially with complex documents, but the Acrobat Pro Add-on is still the most reliable tool for the job.

Save to OneDrive

Saving a document to OneDrive can be a convenient way of storing documents in the cloud, where they can be accessed at any time from any device. OneDrive is similar to services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.net, and iCloud. You can share files in OneDrive with other people. You can set permissions as read-only, or shared editing. If the person accesses the file online, the file will likely open in the web browser, and some of the accessibility features may be unavailable in the online version of MS Office.