Accessibility in Office Documents

Accessible documents help everyone, not just disabled users. Adding structure, clear headings and meaningful descriptions improves readability, understanding and navigation for all readers.

Good accessibility is also part of professional practice and a legal expectation in education and employment. Many employers now expect graduates to understand basic accessibility principles when creating digital content.

Watch out for these common accessibility problems in Office documents.

• Not using heading styles. This makes navigation harder for screen readers and for other readers.
• Missing alt text on images. Screen reader users may not be able to understand the purpose of a visual.
• Using tables for layout instead of for data. This can make documents harder to interpret.
• Empty table cells or missing header rows. This can make the meaning of data unclear.
• Links labelled “click here” instead of descriptive text.
• Not running the Accessibility Checker. This means common issues may be missed.

Check that:

• headings and document structure have been set up properly
• alt text has been added where needed
• tables are being used for data, not layout
• table headers are clear where needed
• link text is descriptive
• the Accessibility Checker has been run
• the final version still looks clear and usable after saving or exporting