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Creating accessible Word documents

To make documents accessible to people who use assistive technologies

Blind or visually impaired people use magnification software, a screen reader or a Braille output device to access the content of documents. For this to work, documents should be technically and design-wise accessible.

A document is mainly (technically) accessible if its content structure (headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, etc.) is not only visually clear, but also machine-readable. This means, for example, that a heading not only looks like a heading. It is also technically labelled as such and is therefore recognised and output by a screen reader and can be specifically accessed by the user via commands.

How to create accessible Word documents:

  • For headings
    (Follow the logical heading hierarchy and do not skip any hierarchy levels).
  • For lists
  • For spacing between lines and paragraphs
    (Do not create blank lines by pressing the ENTER key several times! Such blank lines are read out by the screen reader as “empty” and disrupt the reading flow).

You can customise the style sheets according to your own wishes and therefore define how the main title, level 1/level 2 headings etc. should look or how large the spaces between paragraphs should be.

See also Provide image content with alternative texts.

  • Define table headings (if necessary with the setting “repeating” if tables extend over several pages)
  • Define result rows if necessary
  • Do not join or split cells
  • Do not nest tables
  • Instead of large complex tables, try to divide them into several small tables

If you use the labels for images, diagrams etc. and use style sheets, this is very easy.

Mark these as “decorative” (same place where you also enter alternative text for image content).

  • Set the “ QuickInfo” for links in Word
  • Instead of writing out the URL, it is better to use a term or group of words that indicates where the link leads to
  • Don't just use the word “here” as a link

Example:

instead:

Further information can be found at https://www.tu-darmstadt.de/projekt-handicap/ziel/index.de.jsp (opens in new tab).

Further information can be found here (opens in new tab).

better:

Further information can be found on the Handicap project website (opens in new tab).

The different line lengths provide better orientation than justified text. With right-aligned text, people who use a magnifying glass function can easily lose the orientation.

Better use the Tab key once.

No important information in headers and footers.

This is read out by the screen reader. Other details such as the author or document description are also helpful – for everyone.

Remember to also set the language for individual words or sentences if they are different from the document language. This influences the sound language in which the screen reader reads out (e.g. German or English pronunciation).

See also Easy-to-read fonts & understandable text design

See also Don't use colour as the only way to convey information

See also Ensure sufficient contrast

Please note that not everything is checked automatically (e.g. quality of alternative texts, contrast).

So that the technical labelling (tag structure of the document) is retained and machine readability is maintained.

  • NOT via the “Print” function
  • But via “Save as” > PDF (“Options” > “Activate document structure tags for accessibility”)
  • Or, if available, via the “Acrobat” add-in in Word (displayed as a function tab in the top menu bar, such as “Layout”, “View”, etc.)

For a final check of the extent to which the saved PDF document is actually accessible, you can use Adobe Acrobat Pro or the PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC). – See Check & ensure the accessibility of PDF documents

Info & instructions for creating accessible Word documents

The most importants at a glance:

Helpful short video tutorials:

Text instructions:

From Microsoft Support: Designing accessible Word documents for people with disabilities (opens in new tab)

Information area: Accessible documents

The University of Potsdam offers a detailed information area with videos, checklists, information on PDF documents in general, on creating them with Word, with PowerPoint and on creating PDF forms.

Information area "Accessible documents" (opens in new tab)

Find out how you can make emails accessible

From Microsoft Support: Make your Outlook email accessible for people with disabilities (opens in new tab)

Find out how you can ensure accessibility in Excel documents.

In the Moodle course “Material package accessible teaching” on the OpenMoodle platform of Bielefeld University you will find the checklist: Excel accessibility (opens in new tab) as well as the instructions for implementing (opens in new tab) the requirements from the checklist.

The course is openly accessible. To use the checklist interactively, it is best to create an account yourself and register for the course.