Word Accessibility
Accessibility Assistant
Use Word’s Accessibility Assistant, a built-in accessibility checker to check for common issues. Note, these tools may not catch all possible accessibility issues.
Navigate to the Review tab and click Check Accessibility.
- Select Review tab
- Choose Check Accessibility button
- The Accessibility Assistant panel will open and show issues
- Select each issue to see it highlighted in the document
- Select the arrow next to each warning to see further information
To see real time accessibility status:
At the bottom of the Accessibility Assistant panel select the Settings button. In the Settings window, check the Show accessibility status for the Accessibility Assistant in the Status Bar checkbox. Click Accessibility: Investigate in the status bar at the bottom of the window to open the Accessibility Assistant pane. Accessibility: Good to go indicates no violations of the automated checker’s rules.
In the Accessibility settings window, check Show accessibility status inline with the document to toggle on a real-time, inline accessibility checker. When content is added to Word that violates accessibility checker rules, a small human form icon will appear on the line of the offending content.
Checker Results
Like any automated tool, Word’s Accessibility Assistant will not catch all accessibility issues. Here is a summary of what it does look for and how well it catches those issues:
| Element checked | Effectiveness of check |
|---|---|
| Hard-to-read text contrast | Strong Evaluates the contrast ratio between font and background and offers suggestions to ensure sufficient contrast. |
| Missing alt text | Moderate Flags images that do not have alt text or where the alt text is the image file name. Cannot identify if alt text is appropriate or meaningful. The built-in image description generator is poor and should not be used. |
| Image or object not inline | Strong Flags images that are not inline. Offers shortcut to place object in line or mark image as decorative. |
| No headings in document | Weak Flags documents over 10 pages that have no headings, however almost all documents regardless of length benefit from headings. Tool does not consider proper heading hierarchy. |
| Missing table header | Strong Flags tables that do not have properly marked up table header cells. |
| Use of merged or split cells | Strong Flags tables that include merged or split cells. |
Additional elements not automatically checked:
The Word Accessibility Assistant does not assess links, font size and style, proper use of lists, or if media has captions or transcripts.
Read more about checking for accessibility issues with the Office Accessibility Checker and learn about Office Accessibility Checker rules and messages.
Automated tools built-in to many platforms that check for common accessibility issues. Are not to be considered a guarantee of accessibility.
