In our “Ask an Expert” series, we answer questions about digital accessibility from our community.
This month, Jon from Bentley in Western Australia has asked:
Question:
How do I check the accessibility of a Word document?
Thanks for your question, Jon!
Microsoft Word has a built-in Accessibility Checker that can help you find accessibility issues in your document before you share it.
Open your Word document, select Review, then select Check Accessibility.
The Accessibility Checker will open a panel showing any accessibility issues it has found. It will also provide information about why something may be an accessibility problem and suggestions for how you can fix it.
The checker can identify a range of issues, including images that are missing alternative text, problems with tables, document structure and some colour contrast issues.
Word may group the results by their level of importance, helping you work through the issues that have been identified. Selecting an issue can also take you to the relevant part of the document so you can investigate and fix it.
However, getting a clear result from the Accessibility Checker doesn’t necessarily mean your document is completely accessible.
Automated tools can identify certain technical problems, but they can’t always tell whether something works well for a person using the document. For example, the checker may be able to tell that an image has alt text, but it can’t always determine whether that alt text describes the image appropriately.
It’s still important to consider things such as clear language, logical reading order, meaningful headings and links, and whether the document is easy to understand and navigate.
Think of the Accessibility Checker as a useful first step. It can help you catch common problems, but it works best alongside a manual accessibility check.
For instructions on using the tool, read Microsoft’s guide to improving accessibility with the Accessibility Checker.
If you have a question for our Ask an Expert series, please email us at admin@accessibility.org.au or find Centre for Accessibility Australia on social media.