LibGuides: Accessibility Guidance: Word document guidance

Word document guidance

Headings and styles

Word has built in styles for titles, headings, bullets and numbers, which act to create a structured document.

Screenshot demonstrating appearance of Headings in Word and where on the tool bar they can be selected from.

Advantages of using standardised headings include:

Makes the document more easy to navigate and to identify the information a reader is after
Better navigation for users of screen readers
Consistent layout
Table of contents can be automatically generated
Styles can be altered to suit individual taste

Changing heading settings

To change a heading, right click against it from the menu bar at the top and then select ‘modify’.

You will then be able to change the properties for that heading as shown in the screenshot below by adjusting the font, text size, colour and other formatting.

Screenshot showing the 'modify style' window where style settings can be altered

Guidance around setting styles

As a general rule of thumb, the following practices are recommended:

Font: use Sans Serif fonts, with a minimum text size of 12
Colour: Ensure good contrast (e.g. not red on green)
Emphasis: Use Bold text to emphasise something rather than Italics or Underlining
Spacing: Avoid overcrowding of letters and lines
Text alignment: Suggest aligning to the left

Setting up lists

Lists has its own style setting, when setting up a list with bullet points Word will automatically change the style formatting to that of the ‘lists’ style.

To select the ‘lists’ style manually you may need to scroll down to additional style options:

Screenshot showing where lists can be set up from in Word

Hyperlinks

When setting up hyperlinks the following principles apply:

Don’t use ‘click here’ or ‘see here’ style hyperlinks
Do make each link distinct and provide context, e.g. Lecture 1: Introduction (Slides) as opposed to Lecture 1: Slides

To insert a hyperlink, highlight the text you want linked and then right click on it to select ‘hyperlink’, or use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+K.

Then insert the web address you wish the link to go to.

Screenshot showing the 'Insert Hyperlink' box in Word where a hyperlink can be added to link to a component of text

Use of Alternative (ALT) text

Adding ALT text to an image provides a written description which can be read aloud to somebody with low vision who makes use of a screen reader.

To add ALT text in Word, right click on the image and select ‘format picture’ from the bottom of the list of options.

Screenshot showing an image which has been right clicked on, with the list of menu options, including 'format picture' displaying.

This will bring up a menu bar to the right of screen. The third of the four icons which will display ('Format Picture') provides the option of adding ALT text.

Screenshot of the Format Picture 'Alt Text' box which appears on the right hand side of a word document when the 'format picture' option has been selected.

ALT text descriptions typically should be brief and not exceed 125 characters where a description of an image is concerned.

A useful training resource for anyone wanting to know more about how to write appropriate ALT text descriptions is the Poet training tool. The guidance provided by the Poet training tool includes specific guidance around mathematical graphs and more technical diagrams.

Reading or Tab Order

Provided you are using standardised headings then the tab / reading order of your document should naturally be set around this.

To manually check the reading or tab order for your document in Word, select ‘layout’ from the top level menu bar and then ‘Selection Pane’. On the left of screen will then display the Headings which have been established. Additional Headings and Subheadings can be added and the order of Headings can be moved around from here.

Screenshot of a word document showing how to bring up the read order function, with document navigation headings showing in the left hand pane.

Tables

Try not to use tables solely for layout purposes as this information will not be clearly conveyed to someone reliant on a screen reader.

Screen readers will naturally read content one row at a time from left to right.

To therefore make this content comprehendible to a screen reader ensure that you provide headings in the top row and not in a column down the side.

By making the top row a designated header row you can improve the accessibility of the table, some screen readers will read out the row name before reading out the data in each individual cell. It is also advisable to provide ALT text for tables giving a concise overview of the information they contain.

For more guidance on this topic please see this Microsoft tutorial video.

Assessing the accessibility of a Word document

Microsoft offers an automated accessibility checker which can be used to evaluate the document and identify any issues which may need to be rectified.

To run the accessibility check select ‘File’ in the top left of screen and then ‘check for issues’, ‘check accessibility’.

Screenshot showing how to select the accessibility check functionality in a Word document

For more on how to utilise and interpret this functionality please see the accessibility checker guidance document adapted from JISC guidelines.

Accessibility Guidance: Word document guidance