Creating accessible documents is essential to ensure that all staff and clients – including people with disabilities – can access and understand your content. The attached guide for general staff (with basic Microsoft Word proficiency) combines best practices for overall document accessibility and detailed guidance on making tables accessible. It provides step-by-step instructions for manual checks and using Word’s Accessibility Checker, with practical examples and a final checklist for easy reference.
Important Focus Areas: When checking a Word document for WCAG 2.1 compliance, concentrate on these key areas first:
- Document structure: Use proper heading styles and list formatting so content is organized and navigable.
- Text alternatives: Ensure all images and other visuals have descriptive alt text (or are marked decorative).
- Links and color usage: Use meaningful link text (no “click here”), avoid using color alone to convey information, and maintain high color contrast for text.
- Tables: Make tables a simple grid with a clear header row, no merged cells, and a logical reading order. We’ll cover detailed table guidelines and examples below.
- Accessibility Checker & testing: Always run Word’s Accessibility Checker and address its findings, then perform a quick keyboard and screen reader simulation to catch anything the checker might miss.
Following these practices will help make your Word documents Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust for everyone. Remember that automated tools catch only about half of all accessibility issues, so a combination of manual and automated checks is necessary for a thorough review.