Note: All external links open in a new window.
Standard 2: Image placement does not hinder learner navigation and includes meaningful alternative text to enhance learner understanding.
Standard 3: Color contrast is distinguishable but not essential to consume content.
Standard 4: Tables are simple, meaningful through alternative text, and logical for all learners.
Standard 5: Hyperlinks are simple, meaningful, and intuitive for all learners.
Standard 9: Documents include indicators allowing learners to navigate content seamlessly.
Documents present a unique issue as they require multiple accessibility standards to be met. To improve the accessibility of your documents, use our Starting Six Accessibility Essentials and this guidebook based on the elements in your document. This page will focus on additional tips. For the purpose of this webpage, we will focus on Microsoft Word documents, though the same elements must be present in PowerPoint and PDF.
Watch the Microsoft Office PowerPoint Training to improve the accessibility of PowerPoints. Review our Creating Accessible Adobe PDFs page to improve the accessibility of PDFs.
Take some time to watch the Microsoft Office Word Document Training. This mini-training will cover many elements of document accessibility.
Along with the video training, turn on the Microsoft Accessibility Checker every time you open a Word document. The accessibility checker is a great way to alert you of issues and warnings that need to be fixed prior to adding a document to your course. Be sure to clear all warnings and errors from the Microsoft accessibility checker.
Manually check the following:
Be sure to choose a design or color set the meets color contrast requirements. You can use the MARCOM Studio: Visual Style Guide color combinations or stick to light backgrounds with dark text.
Use H1 (Heading level 1) instead of the title tool to indicate the title of the document.
All headings should be nested, sequential, accurate, and there should be no blank headings.Add a file header and footer that include:
Once the content has been reviewed using the accessibility elements discussed in the Microsoft Office series, you will need to properly convert to Adobe PDF using Microsoft Office: Create Accessible PDFs.
Do you have questions? Click the button below to email our Digital Accessibility Team.