Authoring Accessible Documents using MS Word
Microsoft Office documents are generally accessible to assistive technology like screen readers and voice recognition software. Keyboard equivalents are available for most functional activities.
Like most word processor, MS Word has built-in features that encode semantic structure and styles to control the visual presentation of structural elements. When converted, structural and styles elements translate into equivalent RTF, HTML, XML or PDF tags.
A well crafted MS Word document will convert easily into other file formats while maintaining all of its presentation and structural information
Quick Tips to Accessible Word Processing Documents
When done correctly, the document ensures correct reading-order and allows it to reflow to fit the display when the magnification or display size is changed.
- Place content in logical reading order. This is fundamental to creating accessible documents.
- Do not use TAB, Spacebar and Enter keys to format for tables, columns, lists etc.
- Use the application's built-in features to encode semantic structure (headings, paragraphs, lists, sections, headers/footers, tables, columns, forms etc.).
- Define and use styles to format structural elements like headings, paragraphs etc. to control typography and layout.
- Use standard fonts. Do not use fonts that do not map to Unicode.
- Avoid complex layout, sidebars and other ornamentation as they make it difficult to maintain a logical reading order.
- Avoid placing content in drawing-canvases or text-boxes as these are floating objects and flow to the bottom of a page's reading-order.
- Group multiple graphic elements (created by drawing tools, charts etc) into one image.
- Provide alternative text descriptors for all non-textual elements (graphs, images, illustration, pictures, multimedia, etc) that provide essential information.
- Ensure that all navigation and interactivity can be performed using the keyboard.
