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Accessible Microsoft Office

Did you know Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook have built in help for accessibility?

You can improve accessibility with the Accessibility Checker. Before sending your email message or sharing your document or spreadsheet, run the Accessibility Checker to make sure your content is easy for people of all abilities to read and edit.

In Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, the accessibility checker is in the Review tab. Select Check Accessibility. Any errors or warnings will be in the panel on the right. Select a dropdown next to Errors and then click on the dropdown arrow on the error issue to get walked through how to fix the problems.

 

review tab open with Check Accessibility option

In Outlook, Click on the three dots on the top right of the email. Choose, Check for Accessibility option.

accessible controls in top right of email

The Accessibility Checker will have a pop up window explaining any problems it finds. For example, the image in this email is missing an alt tag.

accessibility checker notes

 

Clicking on the issue will prompt a pop up window to add the alt text.

pop window to add alt text to image

 

If you are saving to a PDF

Office 365, Office 2019, Office 2016 Windows

  1. Before generating your PDF, run the Accessibility Checker to make sure your document is easy for people of all abilities to access and edit.
  2. Click File > Save As and choose where you want the file to be saved.
  3. In the Save As dialog box, choose PDF in the Save as type list.
  4. Click Options, make sure the Document structure tags for accessibility check box is selected, and then click OK.

Office for Mac

  1. Before generating your PDF, run the Accessibility Checker to make sure your document is easy for people of all abilities to access and edit.
  2. Select File> Save As (or press Command+Shift+S), type the file name in the Save As text box, and then choose where you want the file to be saved.
  3. In the Save As dialog, go to the File Format drop down box. Use the Down Arrow to browse through file types, and select PDF.
  4. Select the radio button "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility (uses Microsoft online service)." This ensures the PDF is tagged.

    Tip: PowerPoint for macOS does not provide this option when saving as a PDF but you can save your presentation to OneDrive, open it in PowerPoint for the web and download as PDF from there. PDF files generated from PowerPoint for the web preserve tagging.

  5. Select Save.

Office for web

  1. Before generating your PDF, run the Accessibility Checker to make sure your document is easy for people of all abilities to access and edit.
  2. On the ribbon, select the File button.
  3. Select the Save As option.
  4. In the Save As pane, select Download as PDF to open the Microsoft Word for the web dialog box. You'll see a link to download your PDF document.
  5. Select Click here to view the PDF of your document and then press Enter.
  6. In the notification panel, find the name of your document under Current downloads, and do one of the following:
    • To save in the default location, choose Save.
    • To save in a different location, press Save As. In the Save As dialog box, you can type a new file name and choose the folder you want. Click the Save button.
  7. If you want to open the document or the folder, choose the option you want in the notification bar.

 

 

 

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