Use MS Word to create an accessible document

Q: Writing style

If your document will be published on GOV.UK, follow the: Government Digital Service ( GDS ) guidance on writing for GOV.UK Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) guidance on inclusive communication When you write, turn on the Editor feature in MS Word . Set the standard to ‘Professional writing’. This is a useful tool to flag potential issues, but you don’t have to follow all its recommendations.

Question 1

Give your document a proper structure

Accepted Answer

Organise your content into logical sections. Then use clear, descriptive headings and subheadings to help people find the content.

Put the important information at the top of the document. This is the information that most people coming to the page need to know.

If you’re writing guidance, use ‘active’ headings like those in this document.

Avoid unhelpful headings like ‘More information’.

Use MS Word styles to create a hierarchy of heading levels

You must use a hierarchy of heading levels in your document. This makes it easier for people to scan your document, visually and with assistive technology. You should use MS Word’s styles to set up the heading level structure.

Apply an MS Word Heading 1 style to the title on the first page of your document. For accessibility reasons, you should only have one level 1 heading. This heading should feature at the start of the document.

Apply a Heading 2 style to the top-level subheadings for each main section in your document. You can then apply a Heading 3 or 4 style to any lower-level subheadings, but make sure you follow a correctly nested sequential structure so that any subheadings only drop down by one level. For example, if you use a level 3 subheading, make sure it sits beneath a level 2 subheading.

See Microsoft guidance on adding headings.

Add a table of contents

If your document is more than 10 pages in length, add a table of contents that includes the main document chapters.

To add your table correctly, select the Table of Contents button on the References tab of the Microsoft ribbon. This will help to ensure the table of contents is accessible.

Click on the links in your table of contents to make sure they work correctly. Check these links when you finish your document in case they break during the drafting process. Broken links in your table will often display as ‘Error! Bookmark not found!’.

See Microsoft guidance on setting up a table of contents in Word and Microsoft guidance on updating a table of contents.

Question 2

Use the accessibility checker

Accepted Answer

Add the MS Word accessibility checker to your display when you are writing a document.

To do this, select the Review tab at the top of MS Word. Then, select Check Accessibility. An accessibility panel will appear on the right-hand side of the screen. You can select Recheck as you write the document.

This will help you to address accessibility issues as you write.

Question 3

Formatting text

Accepted Answer

Text must be formatted in a legible font and font size. You should:

use a standard sans serif font such as Arial
format text in at least 12pt font size
align text to the left
avoid small text, such as 9pt font size for labels

Be careful with other fonts, as they may not be clear for some users.

Use MS Word styles

Use MS Word styles throughout your document to format your text clearly and consistently for users. You can access them using the Styles button on the Home tab of the ribbon.

Using styles will also help to ensure your document converts to accessible PDF more successfully.

Remove any font ligatures

Ligatures are where 2 or more letters join or bridge together in a word to form a single character. If the font you are using contains ligatures, it can lead to accessibility issues, particularly for screen readers.

Follow the steps to prevent ligatures from being used in each of your font styles.

Go to Styles in the Home tab.
Find a style you are using in your document and right-click on it.
Select Modify.
Select Format and then Font.
Select the Advanced tab.
Select None from the Ligatures drop-down list and then select OK.

Use page breaks and paragraph styles to add space

You can use page breaks and paragraph styles to add more space in your document.

Don’t select Enter and add a line break. Line breaks cause problems for people using assistive technology.

Adding space between paragraphs

Instead of using line breaks, you can adjust the spacing around your paragraphs.

Go to Styles in the Home tab.
Find a style you are using in your document and right-click on it.
Select Modify.
Select Format and then Font.
Adjust the Before and After spacing values and select OK.

Inserting page breaks

Insert page breaks to split up sections of your document without having to use line breaks. This will allow you to present content such as new chapters, large tables or headings on a separate page.

You can add a page break by going to the Insert tab in the ribbon and selecting Page Break.

See Microsoft guidance on page breaks.

Format lists using MS Word’s built-in options

Format any list in your document using MS Word’s Bullets, Numbering and Multi-level List buttons. Lists within lists must be created and nested correctly using the tab key.

You should also make sure that you format the spacing between each list item correctly to avoid introducing accessibility issues. Where necessary, follow the Microsoft guidance on changing the space between bullets in a list.

Avoid text boxes

Text boxes are not accessible. Some screen readers cannot read information presented in text boxes and will ‘skip over’ that information.

As an alternative, you can break out sections of information with:

paragraph styling
sub-headings
horizontal lines
borders
indented text

For example, you could use the options in the Paragraph section of the Home tab on the MS Word ribbon to change the way your text is presented. Select the Indent button to adjust your text’s position. Select the Border Options button to apply an outside border and customise its appearance. Avoid using a dotted border as this may not convert well to PDF.

Question 4

Links

Accepted Answer

Use clear link text to tell users where a link will take them.

When writing link text, avoid generic phrases, such as ‘click here’ or ‘see report’. Making sure your link text is descriptive helps everyone, especially people using screen-reader software.

Avoid adding links as footnotes – include links in the document’s body text instead.

Don’t include a ‘Useful links’ section. It’s much more helpful to link from the relevant text in the document.

Question 5

Numbered paragraphs

Accepted Answer

Don’t use numbered paragraphs.

Numbered paragraphs add additional ‘furniture’ to the page with little benefit. Most people are not used to reading content with numbered paragraphs.

It is also difficult to make numbered paragraphs accessible. Difficult documents are expensive to tag for accessibility.

Question 6

Footnotes and references

Accepted Answer

Keep footnotes to a minimum. Avoid using endnotes as references because it’s much harder for screen readers to access them.

Footnotes make text harder to read for everyone, especially people with access needs.

Present information as part of the ‘body text’ of the document wherever possible.

Question 7

Images and graphics

Accepted Answer

Images can help people to understand information if they are clear and simple.

Images, charts, graphs and diagrams should fit on a single page and not run over a 2-page spread.

Alt text

Some people, including people using screen reader software, will not be able to see images. We need to include text to give people the information that an image shows.

The best way to do this is to add the text in the body of your document before the image. If you explain the image fully in the text, you:

don’t need to add ‘alt text’ to an image
can mark the image as ‘decorative’ for accessibility purposes – right-click the image, select View Alt Text and then check the Mark as Decorative box

Make sure that the text tells people what information the image is giving, not just what is in it.

Text in images

Avoid using text in images. Text in an image cannot be read by a screen reader or enlarged. It loses quality when magnified and cannot be customised by the end user.

If you use text in an image, put it in the body of the document as well so everyone can read it.

Read the GOV.UK style guide about using images.

Alt text for complex graphics

Some graphics are too complex to explain in a few sentences of text. For example, a large flowchart with many dependencies.

You will need to explain what a complex graphic shows.

You could add a:

transcript of the flowchart, explaining each step in the process in detail
data table with the figures and statistics
text summary of the main data points and trends

Explain infographics by listing out the core messages from the graphic.

See this Department of Health and Social Care web page for an example of how to explain a flowchart using text.

Charts, graphs and diagrams

Make sure your chart is easy to read and understand.

Give your chart plenty of room on the page so that data and labels can be clearly viewed.

You should:

use legible font and font size for labels and axes
use lots of white space to separate out each section of the chart
use different patterns and textures for lines and bars in charts
if you are using colours, choose colours that have a high contrast with white

Some users cannot see colour differences (see the Use of colour section in this guidance).

Use different patterns and shades to distinguish between data series. For line graphs, you could use different line weights and patterns. For bar charts, consider using several different shades of the same colour.

Try printing out a chart in greyscale (black and white) to find out it makes sense visually.

See Microsoft guidance on presenting data in a chart.

Include a data table

Summarise the data from your chart in a plain text table. Put this directly underneath the chart.

This is helpful for screen reader users – it gives an alternative way to access the data.

It helps all users by providing 2 different ways to understand the information.

Maps

Maps that are not intended to be used for navigation are exempt from the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations (PSBAR) regulations.

Question 8

Tables

Accepted Answer

Use tables to present data or information that can be organised in a structured way, such as numbers, text or statistics.

Don’t use tables to lay out content on a page.

Accessible tables have a simple structure. Consider breaking a complex table into multiple, smaller tables.

Inserting a table

Tables must be created using the Add a Table button in the Insert tab on the Microsoft ribbon. Select the number of columns and rows you want to include.

Don’t add tables as images – use the original table.

Table cells

You should not have empty cells in your table. Use ‘no data’ or ‘not applicable’ instead of leaving cells empty.

The only exception to this is the top left cell of tables. This cell can be left empty if it features above a column of row headers that don’t need their own column header.

Try to avoid using cells that merge across columns and cells that merge across rows.

Don’t use:

cells that merge across rows if they break across pages
split cells

Add a table heading or caption

You should add a table heading or caption to help users identify your table and understand what it contains.

To insert a table caption, select your table and go to the References tab in the Microsoft ribbon. Select Insert Caption.

We don’t recommend including a table summary. Instead, use the heading, caption and surrounding text to describe the table.

Add table headers

Column headers and row headers help to describe the data in your table and make it accessible.

Table headers must feature in the first row of your table to help users and screen readers understand the data in each column. After inserting your table, check that the Header Row box is selected on the Table Design tab of the Microsoft ribbon.

Example

This table has headers on both the columns and the rows.

	Nigel	Pembe	Ian	Chris
Biscuits	0.5	3	1	2
Cakes	2	3	4	2
Pears	1	0	2	1

See Microsoft guidance on adding header rows to a table.

If your table breaks across multiple pages, check ‘Repeat header row at top of each page’.

See Government Digital Service guidance for more information about using tables.

Question 9

Use of colour

Accepted Answer

Using colour correctly will help to ensure your document is accessible.

Don’t use colour alone to communicate information

Don’t rely on different text colours (or colour keys) alone to communicate information.

This excludes users who cannot see these colours or colour differences.

Make sure text has good contrast with the background

Text needs to have a good contrast with the background. This includes:

text in the body of the document
labels on charts and graphs
text in images and infographics

Large text must have a contrast ratio of 3:1 and normal text should have a contrast ratio of at least 4:5:1. For non-text content, including graphics, the contrast ratio must be at least 3:1. Decorative images and logos don’t have a contrast requirement.

See WebAIM guidance on contrast and colour accessibility, WGAG guidance on minimum colour contrast and WCAG guidance on non-text colour contrast.

Where possible, use black text on a white background to ensure your document meets the standards.

You could use a colour contrast checking tool, such as the WebAIM contrast checker, to find out if your document features the correct colour contrast ratios.

Avoid inaccessible colour combinations

Avoid colour combinations that are difficult for colour-blind users.

Don’t combine:

green and red
green and brown
blue and purple
light green and yellow
green and black

Question 10

Writing style

Accepted Answer

If your document will be published on GOV.UK, follow the:

When you write, turn on the Editor feature in MS Word. Set the standard to ‘Professional writing’. This is a useful tool to flag potential issues, but you don’t have to follow all its recommendations.

Question 11

Finalising your document

Accepted Answer

Once you have completed the steps above:

remove any hidden information or drafting comments
conduct manual and automated accessibility checks

Remove hidden information

Navigate to File then Info. Select Check for Issues.

Select Inspect Document.

This will open the Document Inspector tool.

Press Inspect to scan the file.

If the document inspector finds the following items, click ‘Remove All’ against them:

comments, revisions and versions
personal information

You don’t need to remove other items flagged by the Document Inspector.

Add document title

Navigate to File then Info.

Under Properties, select the Title field and add the title of the document.

Remove any personal details from the Author field.

File name

Give your document a short and meaningful file name. Format in lowercase and use hyphens instead of spaces or underscores to separate words. For example:

Document title: Zero emission buses: local authority toolkit

File name: zero-emission-buses-la-toolkit.docx