Accessible Word Documents

Check a Word document for WCAG 2.1 compliance, using the built-in "Accessibility Checker" in Microsoft Word to identify and fix many common issues before saving as HTML. The process involves using the checker, which will guide you through making necessary fixes like using proper heading styles, adding alt text to images, and creating accessible hyperlinks. 

Students, Employees

Microsoft Word

Use the Accessibility Checker

1. Open the document: In Word, open the document you want to check.
2. Access the checker: Go to the Review tab and select Check Accessibility. Alternatively, go to File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility.
3. Review results: The Accessibility pane will open, showing a list of errors, warnings, and tips.
4. Fix the issues: Expand each item to see how to fix it. Common tasks include:
   1. Using Word's built-in heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) instead of manually formatting text.
   2. Adding alternative text (alt text) to all images.
   3. Creating meaningful, accessible hyperlink text instead of using "Click here".
   4. Ensuring lists are correctly formatted as bulleted or numbered lists. 
   5. Avoid using tables for visual design layout. Tables are intended for data presentation.

Save as Filtered HTML

1. After using the Accessibility Checker to make your document as compliant as possible, save it as a web page.
2. Go to File > Save As and choose Web Page, Filtered (.htm or .html) from the "Save as type" dropdown menu. This option is recommended as it removes Word-specific markup, resulting in cleaner code.
3. Note that the saved HTML will not be perfectly accessible on its own, as the accessibility features you added in the document need to be correctly translated into HTML and CSS.
4. It is crucial to manually check the final HTML output using a web accessibility checker to confirm that the conversion process has maintained the accessibility features you added. 

Microsoft:  Make your documents accessible