Going Forward

The best way to solve an issue is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Take what you’ve learned and incorporate your new skills going forward. Focus on creation and revision, not remediation. As you create new Word documents and update existing ones, make sure they are accessible.

With the knowledge and skills you’ve learned making your existing Word documents accessible, you can start making accessible documents from the start. Instead of checking for accessibility once your document is written, incorporate accessibility best practices into your workflow.

As you become more experienced, you’ll find your Word documents have fewer and fewer accessibility issues. Eventually, you’ll be creating accessible documents without a second thought (or any additional work).

Useful links

Consider the following resources for additional information:

Microsoft outlines the best practices to make documents accessible.

WebAIM guide to creating accessible documents in Word.

Rules for the Office accessibility checker.​

Colour Contrast Analyzer from TPGi is a desktop (Windows and macOS) application to help check for accessible colour.

Read the Word accessibility chapter in the Accessibility Handbook for Teaching and Learning.