Title: Checking MSOffice Material for Accessibility Using MSOffice's Check Accessibility Function
Course: Web Accessibility MOOC for Educators > Section: Creating Accessible MSOffice and PDF Materials

A Word of Caution

Automated, accessibility testing tools provide a good baseline check for accessibility of HTML web pages, PDFs and Microsoft Office 2010 documents, but the documents still need a human to check the pages and ask these questions:

- Are headings used to give the document structure?
- Are embedded media and any interactive widgets on the page, keyboard accessible?
- Does the ALT text for images and graphics clearly represent the meaning the instructor wants to convey with the image?
- Is the navigation easy to follow and understand?

How to Check Accessibility in Microsoft Word & PowerPoint 2010 and 2013

Microsoft Word 2010 and 2013 and Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and 2013 for Windows have built-in accessibility checkers. It's a great way to do a automated check on your document, but it doesn't catch everything. It can't think, so it can't tell you if something should be formatted as a heading for example. So make sure to do a manual check in addition to using this tool. "Automated Accessibility Checkers" by Karen Sorensen, Access, Portland Community College

Microsoft Office 2010 and 2013 Accessibility Checker

Please Note: The accessibility checker only checks .docx files

1. Go to the File tab.
2. Select Info from the sidebar menu.
3. Click on the Check for Issues button.
4. Select Check Accessibility from the drop-down list.

The Accessibility Checker panel will open to the right of the document. The accessibility checker provides you with a list of errors, warnings and tips. When you click on an error or warning, instructions on how to fix it appear below in "Additional Information".