Creating accessible documents

Creating accessible documents

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Overview

This guide explains how to make accessible Microsoft Word documents and PDF files. To generate accessible PDF files from Word, the Word document needs to be accessible.

Most people are in the habit of formatting their documents visually instead of semantically. By making simple changes like using the built-in heading, list, and other styles, your document will be much more accessible. Changing habits like using the enter/return key instead of adjusting the line and paragraph spacing means your document can be easier for everyone to use.

If all you have is a PDF and not the source file used to create it you can fix many accessibility issues in Acrobat.
Learn how to fix PDF accessibility issues in Acrobat.

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Contents

• Styles
  • Modify heading styles
• Headings
• Hyperlinks
• Lists
• Alternative text
  • Images
  • Tables
  • Charts and graphs
  • Other graphics
  • Grouped graphics
• Tables and table headers
  • Header row
  • Header column
• Spacing
  • Horizontal spacing (indentation)
    • Custom indentation
  • Vertical spacing
    • Line spacing
    • Paragraph spacing
    • Page breaks
• Document properties
  • Title
  • Language
• Converting to PDF
• Accessible templates
  • Online
  • Within Word

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Styles

Microsoft Word offers built-in styles to add headings, paragraphs, quotes and other elements. These styles are semantic and not just visual. They tell screen readers that the text or element has a specific function.

Do not create everything as normal text and then increase font-size, boldness and/or change the font-family to make it look like a heading. Instead, use Word's predefined heading and other styles. If these styles don't have the look you want, create your own styles and/or modify existing ones. You cannot create new heading styles, but you can modify the existing ones.

To apply heading (or other) styles:

1. Select the text.
2. From the Home tab, in the Styles panel, select the heading (or other style) to apply.

Modify heading styles

1. Right-click on the style you want to change and select Modify....
   

   

2. The Modify Style window will appear where the styles (Formatting) can be changed.
   

   

3. Select the Add to template checkbox to save your modifications to the default template used to create new documents (Normal.dotm).

Note: Modifying a style will change it throughout the whole document. For example, modifying the Heading 2 style will affect all elements with Heading 2 applied.

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Headings

Use appropriate heading levels to allow screen readers to create an ordered list of all headings in the document and make it easier to navigate.

You should have only one heading 1. Heading 1 should be the main heading for the entire document. Do not skip heading levels.

See accessible structure using headings for more information on creating appropriate headings.

Bad:

Good:

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Hyperlinks

See creating accessible hyperlinks for more information on creating appropriate link text.

To add hyperlinks in a word document:

1. Select the text you want to become a link
2. Right-click the selected link text and choose Hyperlink....
   

   

3. This will open the Insert Hyperlink window. Add the web address you want to link to in the Address field.
   

   

   
   You can also adjust the link text using the Text to Display field.

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Lists

Lists are great for grouping and organizing information. Use ordered lists when the order of the items is important (such as for step-by-step instructions). Use unordered lists when the order does not matter (such as for a list of ingredients). See using lists within accessible content for more information on using lists.

To add lists in a document:

1. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph panel, choose Bulleted () for unordered lists, Numbered () for ordered lists, and Multilevel Lists () for multilevel ordered and unordered lists.
   

   

2. Use the little carrot next to the list icon to select different list styles for each type of list.

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Alternative text

Images

If you insert an image into your document, it must have alternative text (alt-text) unless the graphic is purely decorative and does not add information to understand the content. Without alt text, screen reader users will not be able understand what your image or graphic is about.

For more information and best practices on creating helpful and appropriate alternative text, see alternative text.

To add alternative text to images:

1. Right-click the image or graphic and select View Alt Text...
   

   

   • On newer versions of Microsoft Word, it may attempt to automatically generate alternative text when you insert an image. This AI generated alt text usually needs to be adjusted. Clicking on the auto-generated alt text will also open the Alt Text window.
     

     

2. This opens the Alt Text panel to the right side of the document.
   Add (or edit) the alt text using the text box.
   

   

   • You can also activate the Mark as decorative toggle switch for images that are purely decorative and don't add meaning to the content.
     

     

Tables

Do not use a screenshot or picture of a table. Create it as content in the page. You can add alt text to tables, which can help screen reader users understand the table and its context.

To add alt text to a table:

1. Right-click anywhere on the table and choose Table Properties....
   

   

2. This opens the Table Properties window. Choose the Alt Text tab.
   

   

3. Enter a Title and Description for the table and then select the OK button.
   

   

Charts and graphs

The information contained in charts and graphs needs to be conveyed in a way that non-visual users can understand. Whenever possible, include a simple table underneath it containing the data.

If you cannot add the data in a table, add alternative text. Describe the chart or graph like you're explaining it to a friend who cannot see it. Include data contained in the chart or graph and any other important details.

Add alt text just like you would for an image:

Other graphics

Other forms of graphics like shapes, icons, 3D models, SmartArt, and charts require alternative text too.

Add alt text to these graphics just like you would for images. Right-click the graphic and select Edit Alt Text...

Grouped graphics

If you use multiple icons, shapes, or other objects to create a single graphic (e.g. flow-chart or node map), it still needs alternative text. Since the various objects are used to create a single graphic, they need to be grouped so that you can add alt text to your design as a whole.

To group multiple objects:

1. Select all objects. Select the first object, then hold the shift key to add more to your selection.
   

   

2. With all the objects selected, navigate to the Shape Format (or Picture Format tab depending on what kind of objects you selected).
   Open the Group Objects dropdown () and select Group.
   

   

3. Now that all the shapes are grouped, you can add alternative text like you would with an image.
   Right-click the grouped objects and select View Alt Text.
   

   

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Tables and table headers

It is important that tables in documents not be overly complex. Ideally, have a single header row and no merged cells anywhere. Empty cells should also be avoided — use values like n/a instead. If a table is too complex, you can usually break it up into multiple simple tables.

Header row

To make sure your table has a header row:

1. Click anywhere in the table and select the Table Design tab.
   

   

2. Make sure the Header Row checkbox is active.
   

   

Header column

A simple table can contain a header column as its first column. To add a header column:

1. Click anywhere in the table and select the Table Design tab.
2. Make sure the First Column checkbox is active.
   

   

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Spacing

Improperly positioned text blocks in Microsoft Word using the tab, spacebar, and enter/return keys can cause screen readers to announce all the extra spacing characters. These keys are often used to adjust layouts by adding horizontal and vertical spacing and indentation. This can make the document difficult to understand for those users.

Microsoft Word has multiple built-in features you should use to adjust spacing and indentation in your document layout.

Page breaks should be created using the Page Break tool in the Layout tab.

Horizontal spacing tools include Decrease Indent () and Increase Indent (). Vertical spacing tools include the Line and Paragraph Spacing () dropdown which has multiple options. These can be found in the Home tab of Word, in the Paragraph panel.

Horizontal spacing (indentation)

To adjust horizontal spacing (to add or remove indentation):

1. Select the text you want to indent (or remove indentation from).
   

   

2. Navigate to the Home tab and find the Paragraph panel.
   

   

3. Use the Increase Indent () tool to add horizontal spacing (indentation).
   You can increase the indentation multiple times to further position your text.
   

   

4. To decrease or remove horizontal spacing, highlight the text to adjust and use the Decrease Indent () tool.
   

   

Custom indentation

To customize the amount of indentation, use Line Spacing Options... in the Line and Paragraph Spacing dropdown:

1. Select the text you want to adjust.
2. On the Home tab, find the Paragraph panel.
   Open the Line and Paragraph Spacing dropdown and select Line Spacing Options...:
   

   

3. This will open the Paragraph window.
   Under Indentation use the Left and Right fields to specify indentation values in inches.
   

   

Vertical spacing

You can adjust line and paragraph spacing using the tools in the Line and Paragraph Spacing () dropdown.

Line spacing

To adjust line spacing:

1. Select the text you want to adjust.
2. Navigate to the Home tab and find the Paragraph panel.
   Open the Line and Paragraph Spacing dropdown and select the line spacing value you want (e.g. 1.0, 1.15, 1.5, 2.0, etc.).
   

   

The line spacing values adjust the line-height relative to the text-height. For example, 2.0 line spacing will make each line two-times the text height.

Paragraph spacing

To adjust paragraph spacing (i.e. the amount of space before and after paragraphs):

1. Select the paragraph(s) you want to adjust and navigate to the Home tab and find the Paragraph panel.
2. Open the Line and Paragraph Spacing dropdown:
   • You can use Add Space Before Paragraph and Remove Space After Paragraph, or...
     

     

   • use Line Spacing Options... for more granular control.
     

     

     
     This will open the Paragraph window where you can specify exact values for paragraph spacing.
     Modify the Before and After fields to adjust the spacing before and after paragraphs.
     

     

Page breaks

Page breaks should be added using Word's Page Break tool instead of the enter/return key.

Tp add a page break:

1. Place your cursor before the text that you want to move to the next page.
   

   

2. Navigate to the Insert tab and select Page Break ()
   

   

   
   This will create a page break without excessive spacing characters being announced for screen reader users.
   

   

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Document properties

For accessibility, Word documents need their title and language to be set in the document properties.

Title

Setting the document title is slightly different between Windows and macOS.

On Windows

1. Navigate to the File tab.
2. Click Info on the left-hand column.
3. On the right side of the screen, under the Properties section, locate the Title field (it may say "Add a title").
4. Click in the field and type your desired document title.
5. The change is automatically saved to the document's properties.

On macOS

1. Navigate to the File menu at the very top of the screen and select Properties from the dropdown menu.
   

   

2. In the Document Properties dialog box that appears, click the Summary tab.
   

   

3. Type your desired document title into the Title field.
   

   

4. Click OK to save the properties and close the box.

Language

Usually, Word will automatically detect the language of your document. If you are going to generate a PDF, the language should be set automatically.

If you need to modify the language or designate a portion of the document as another language you can do the following:

1. Select the text (or entire document) you want to chang the language for.
2. Navigate to the Review tab and select Language tool (within the Language panel).
   

   

3. This will open a Language window.
   Select the correct language from the list in the Mark selected text as field then use the OK button.
   

   

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Converting to PDF

Use Word's Save As... dialog box once your document is ready to be made into a PDF file.

1. In the File menu select Save As....
   

   

2. This opens the save as dialog.
   Expand the File Format dropdown and select PDF.
   

   

3. Select the Best for electronic distribution and accessibility (uses Microsoft online service) checkbox and not the "Best for print" checkbox.
   

   

4. Use the Export button after you've selected the correct settings and specified the filename.

Don't use Acrobat

Your installation of Word may have an Acrobat tab. The Create PDF tool takes you to the same save window mentioned above. If you have a paid version of Acrobat installed, it may ask you if you want to use Acrobat to generate the PDF. Do not use Acrobat. The tagged elements may not carry over which are required for accessibility.

To use the Create PDF tool:

1. Open the Acrobat tab and select the Create PDF tool.
   

   

2. If a small Acrobat Create PDF window pops up, select the No button.
   

   

3. This will open a Save window.
   Make sure the checkbox for Best for electronic distribution and accessibility (uses Microsoft online service) is active.
   

   

4. Use the Export button to save the file as a PDF.

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Accessible templates

Microsoft Word offers accessible templates that have the following:

• Better color contrast
• Meaningful alt text
• Simple table structures
• Larger font size
• Input messages
• And more

You can find accessible templates online or in Microsoft Word.

Online

1. Go to create.microsoft.com (opens in new tab/window)
2. Search for "accessible templates"

Within Word

1. Go to File > New.
2. Type "accessible templates" in the Search for online templates box.

More information is on Microsoft's Get accessible templates for Office (opens in new tab/window) page.

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