Create Accessible Documents with Microsoft Word

?Create Accessible Documents with Microsoft WordPlease use this cheat sheet as a basic guide for creating accessible documents in Microsoft Word. Similar to other platforms, the best way to make content accessible is to create it with accessibility in mind. It’s always easier to create a doc accessibly than to fix a non-accessible one.Heading StylesAlways use Heading Styles to give documents a proper hierarchy. Headings contain sections of similar information on a page and visually break up the sections with large, bold text. A single Heading 1 should be used in each document for the Page Title or Main Content Heading. Headings cascade down from Heading 1–6 and should follow a hierarchy of information.Heading styles appear at the top of the document, and you can click the down arrow to view all styles. To turn text into a heading, highlight it with your mouse and click on one of the available Heading Styles.Alternative (Alt) Text for ImagesAlt text conveys the purpose of images and is used when images cannot be seen. All images contained in a Word document must have alt text.Alt Text Best PracticesBe accurate and equivalent to the content or function provided by the image.Be succinct—no more than a few words are necessary.Don't use information present in the surrounding text (redundant).Don't use phrases such as “image of _____” or “graphic of _____.”LinksHyperlinks are created automatically in Word after you paste in a URL and hit return/enter. By default, Word will use the URL as the display text, but this should be edited since the URL is often not informative. The link text should describe what the link is or where the link points to.Lists & ColumnsLists and columns should always be created as ordered/numbered lists or unordered/bulleted lists in Word. Don’t use the Tab key to indent content.Accessibility CheckerUse the built-in Accessibility Checker to scan and identify accessibility issues in a Word doc. The Check Accessibility button is located under the Review tab at the top of the document.Save as PDFDifferent versions of Word save files differently. The following options are often available:File > Save as Adobe PDFFile > Save As…Choose PDF as the save formatFile > Create PDFFile > Print…Choose PDF as the print formatAlternatively, you can open a Word file in Adobe Acrobat Pro and save it as a PDFFile > Action Wizard > Create Accessible PDFsFile > Create > PDF from file... ................
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