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Guidelines: Accessible Word Documents



Categories: Must Should MAY

The "May Items" can provide added functionality for people with disabilities.

 

  1. Create a table of contents: While each document does not need its own table of contents, creating a temporary table of contents helps to check that the section structure is consistent and logical. If there are gaps in the table of contents, work to make the structure more logical.

  2. Create bulleted lists automatically: Try checking the "automatic bulleted lists" option in "AutoFormat As You Type" section of the AutoCorrect dialog box. This will automatically generate accessibly formatted lists.

  3. Save the document in text-only format. Saving a Word document as a text file allows for the quick and easy removal of colors, highlighting, and formatting. If the document is readable as a text-only file, it should be accessible.

  4. Print the document using black ink only. If the colored text is hard to read on a black-and-white printer, many users will have to work harder to assimilate the information.

  5. Consider using sans-serif fonts. Undecorated sans-serif fonts, such as Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana, are easier to read in large print than serif fonts such as Times New Roman or Courier.

  6. Combine related documents into one large document if requested by a student. It may be difficult for some students who cannot effectively use a mouse to open multipledocuments. A student may request that several related Word documents be combined into one long document.

  7. Specify the expansion of each abbreviation or acronym in a document where it first occurs. If any acronyms or abbreviations are used in the presentation, including the expansion of the acronym or abbreviation where it first occurs improves the navigability of the presentation. The expansion allows viewers to search for actual words instead of individual letters. This expansion can be done by placing the actual meaning of the definition in parenthesis following the abbreviation or acronym. For example, GRADE (Georgia Tech Research on Accessible Distance Education).

  8. Provide non-link printable characters between side-by-side links. Many screen-readers and other assistive technologies have trouble distinguishing between links if they are side by side. The screen-readers read the links as one link, thus confusing the user. What is best is to separate the links by characters such as '|' or bullets. This notifies the user that two links exist instead of just one.

  9. Group related links, identify the group, and provide a way to bypass the group.If a group of links exist, such as in a table of contents, where a user can skip to a section of the document, make sure the group has a title, such as "Table of Contents" in order to avoid confusion. Also, for those that use screen-readers, provide a link at the top that will skip straight into the content, bypassing the links. This helps those users to avoid the tedious repetition of the screen-reader reciting the links.


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