Microsoft Word Mac Accessibility Checker

20-05-2021

Microsoft Word Mac Accessibility Checker

Creating and Editing Headings

Select the Home tab from the ribbon.
In your document, select the text to convert to a heading.
Click on the appropriate heading level in the Styles in-ribbon gallery; e.g., Heading 1.
Headings 1, 2, or 3 can also be assigned using Control + Alt + 1, 2, or 3, respectively.

2020-4-2 Note: The Accessibility Checker was not available in earlier versions of Microsoft Office for the Mac. Online Office 365. In the online version of Word, PowerPoint and Excel, the Accessibility Checker can be accessed as follows: Click on the Review tab. Click Check Accessibility. A report will open show any errors found.

Word documents with a true heading structure provide at least two benefits:

The document retains this structure when correctly exported to HTML or PDF.
The document's readability is increased for all users.

Adding Alternative Text

Right-click on the image and select Format Picture. A dialog box will appear.
Select the Alt Text option in the sidebar. Enter the appropriate alternative text in the Description field, NOT the Title field.

Creating Tables

Use the Insert Table command to create a table.
If your table has a column header(s), right click on the first row in the table and select Table Properties > Row > Repeat as header row at the top of each page.

Do NOT create tables 'by hand' with spaces or the Tab key.

Editing Hyperlinks

Select a hyperlink, right-click, and select Edit Hyperlink or Ctrl + K.
Change the text in the Text to display field to a more meaningful description.

Creating Lists

Select the Page Layout tab on the ribbon.
Select the Bullets or Numbering menu from the Paragraph group.

Creating Columns

Select the Page Layout tab on the ribbon.
Select Columns in the Page Setup group.

Using the Accessibility Checker

Select File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility.
The checker presents accessibility errors, warnings, and tips for making repairs.

Saving as HTML

Select the Word logo in the upper-left corner and then select Save As > Other Formats.
Choose one of two options for exporting to HTML from the Save as type drop-down menu:
- Save as Web Page
- Save as Web Page, Filtered

Converting to PDF

Users can create PDF files with the Adobe Acrobat add-in (recommended), or by using Word to save the document as a PDF file.

Adobe Acrobat Add-in

To export a PDF, select Create PDF from the Acrobat ribbon:

Grammar Checker

Select File> Save as Adobe PDF.
Double-check that the proper Application Settings are enabled in Word. You only need do this once:
Select Preferences from the Acrobat ribbon.
Ensure that the Enable Accessibility and Reflow with tagged Adobe PDF setting is checked in the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog.

Saving to PDF with Word

Accessible PDF files can be created without installing the Adobe Acrobat add-in:

Select File > Save As.
Under Save as Type, select PDF.
Before saving, select Options and ensure that the Document structure tags for accessibility option is selected.

WebAIM offers an four-week online course on document (Word, PowerPoint, and PDF) accessibility. Learn more about the Document Accessibility Course.

Introduction

Microsoft Word is currently the most widely-used word processor on the market. Because it is so common, the .doc format has become the de facto format for text documents. MS Word is often used to create PDF and HTML files for websites. Despite some gains in recent years, creating accessible web content with Word is NOT a straightforward process.

The following best practices are provided to help you maximize the accessibility of your Word documents. On this page you will find general principles for increasing accessibility in all versions of Word.

When you are ready to put these recommendations into practice, select your version of Word from the article contents, or at the bottom of this page.

Headings

A uniform heading structure is often the most important accessibility consideration in Word documents. When encountering a lengthy Word document, sighted users often scroll the page quickly and look for big, bold text (headings) to get an idea of its structure and content. Screen reader and other assistive technology users also have the ability to navigate Word documents by heading structure, assuming Word's Heading styles are used.

Structure through hierarchy

Pages should be structured in a hierarchical manner:

A Heading 1 is usually a page title or a main content heading. It is the most important heading, and there is generally just one.
A Heading 2 is usually a major section heading.
A Heading 3 is usually a sub-section of the Heading 2.
A Heading 4 is usually a sub-section of the Heading 3, and so on, ending with Heading 6.

Technically, lower-degree headings should be contained within headings of the next highest degree. One should not skip heading levels, such as using a Heading 4 directly below a Heading 2.

The following outline shows an example of hierarchy. In fact, it is linked to the hierarchy used in part of this page. To experience how an assistive technology user would navigate through a Word document with a proper heading structure, click on any of the heading links to jump to that section of this page.

Heading 1
- Heading 2

Navigation through structure

Word documents with a proper heading structure provide screen reader and other assistive technology users with the structure to navigate by:

Viewing a list of all of the headings on the page.
Choosing top-level headings (Heading 1), next-level headings (Heading 2), third-level headings (Heading 3), and so on.
Reading or jumping by headings.

'Headings' created with font styles

Unfortunately, it is a common practice to create a 'heading' by changing the text directly in a Word document. A user will highlight the text and apply a different font type, a larger font size, bold formatting, etc. While these changes made with Font styling will provide visual structure for some of your users, the document structure needed for navigation by assistive technology users is missing. For this reason, use the Heading tool provided by Word.

Alternative Text for Images

Alternative text is needed in Word documents to provide a non-visual means of representing the CONTENT or FUNCTION of an image. There is more than one way to provide 'alt text', but all images contained in a Word document must have it.

Image types in Word documents that can be given alternative text include:

pictures
illustrations
images of text
shapes
charts
SmartArt
embedded objects

When alt text is added correctly to an image, screen reading software can 'read' it in a Word, PDF or HTML file.

Adding alternative text

There are multiple ways to provide alt text in Word documents:

Use the Description field in the Alt Text field, OR
Provide information about the content or function of the image in the surrounding text.

When the equivalent text cannot be provided succinctly in text near the image, you may link to another section of the document (e.g., an appendix) or to an accessible web page.

Best practices for alternative text

Alternative text should be:

Accurate and equivalent—present the same content or function as the image.
Succinct—no more than a few words are necessary; rarely a short sentence or two may be appropriate.
NOT be redundant—do not provide information that is in the surrounding text.
NOT use descriptive phrases—screen reading software identifies images, so do not use phrases such as 'image of...' or 'graphic of...'.

Data Tables

The purpose of data tables is to present information in a grid, or matrix, and to have columns or rows that show the meaning of the information in the grid. Sighted users scan a table to make associations between data in the table and their appropriate row and/or column headers. Screen reader users make these same associations with tables in web pages and PDF files. Unfortunately support for table headers is limited in Word. You can add properties to Word documents so that column headers (headers in the first row of the table) are identified by a screen reader and read and when exported to PDF. Unfortunately, row headers (headers in the first column of the table) do not have the same level of support.

Links

Microsoft Office Mac

Hyperlinks in Word documents allow users to visit web pages, navigate to Word Headings and Bookmarks, and open email links.

Creating links in Word

Hyperlinks are usually created in Word by pasting the complete URL of a web page into a document and hitting Space, Enter, or some other key. Word automatically creates a link, and uses the URL as the display text (e.g., http://webaim.org/techniques/word/). Because the URL text may not make sense to a user, we recommend editing Word's default link text.

Follow these principles to create accessible links:

Check For Plagiarism

Use descriptive link text that does not rely on context from the surrounding text.
Keep the amount of text in the link to a minimum.
Use underlined text with a color that stands out from the surrounding text.

Screen reader users may skim a document by navigating from link to link. Avoid ambiguous link text that is difficult to understand out of context (e.g., 'click here').

Lists & Columns

Lists and columns add important hierarchical structure to a document. Sometimes users create 'lists' and 'columns' manually by hitting the Tab to indent content. While this provides visual structure for sighted users, it does not provide the document structure needed for assistive technology users.

List types

There are two types of lists used in Word: ordered and unordered. Ordered (numbered) lists are used to present a group of items (words, phrases, sentences) that follow a sequence:

Preheat grill with 'high' heat setting.
Cook hamburgers on 'medium' heat setting.
Flip hamburgers when juices are visible on the top of the patty.
Remove hamburgers when the inside temperature is 160℉.

Unordered (bullet) lists are used for a group of items without a sequence:

Ketchup
Mustard
Pickles
Onions

Accessibility Checker

Word for Windows provides an Accessibility Checker for identifying and repairing accessibility issues. The checker's Inspection Results classifies accessibility issues into three categories:

Errors: content that makes a document very difficult or impossible for people with disabilities to access.
- Example: an image with no alt text.
Warnings: content that in most—but not all—cases makes the document difficult for people with disabilities to access.
- Example: a link with text that is not descriptive of its function.
Tips: content that people with disabilities can access, but that might be better organized or presented.
- Example: skipping from a first-level heading to a third-level heading.

Clicking an item in the results highlights the corresponding item in the document and displays the Additional Information section:

Why Fix: explains why the issue impacts accessibility.
How to Fix: suggestions for repairing the issue.

Converting to HTML

Document structure and alternative text that has been added correctly will be retained when saving a Word document as an HTML file.

The Single File Web Page will save document properties and more Word information, but the file will be much larger. The Web Page option saves pictures in a separate folder, and creates a page that looks almost exactly like the original document. Microsoft recommends using the Web Page, Filtered option. A filtered webpage keeps only the content, style instructions, and some other information, for a small file size, without a lot of extra code.

Converting to PDF

Many Word documents end up as PDF files. It is a convenient way to preserve formatting and accessibility information, assuming the file is converted correctly. Read more on converting a Word document to accessible PDF in our Acrobat/PDF article.

Make sure that you have the right version of Acrobat for your version of Word. Some accessibility information may still need to be added in Acrobat Professional.