Using built-in accessibility checkers to find issues in documents
TOC
- Checking MS Word documents for accessibility
- Checking PDF documents for accessibility
- Checking MS PowerPoint documents for accessibility
Many of work with digital documents in the course of our everyday work. But how do we make those documents accessible to the widest possible audience? A place to start is to get familiar with the accessibility checkers available in MS Office apps like PowerPoint and Word and the checker in Adobe Acrobat Pro. These checkers list accessibility issues in a document and provide advice about how to correct them.
Checking MS Word documents for accessibility
To check your MS Word document for accessibility, go to ‘File > Info > Check accessibility’ under ‘Inspect Document’.
The accessibility checking panel that pops up lists issues and provides information about how to fix them. Different issues are fixed in different ways.
Missing alt text for images is a common problem in MS Office documents. To add alternative text on an image in MS Word right-click on the photo and choose ‘View Alt Text’. Then enter your alt description of the photo in the field provided. If it’s a purely decorative image check ‘Mark as decorative’.
When you’re exporting to PDF from MS Word using ‘Save as’, it’s important to check ‘Document structure tags for accessibility’ in the options so it will export an accessible PDF.
You can learn more about MS Word document accessibility in the Office document accessibility BuckeyeLearn courses. Below is a screenshot of where to access the accessibility checker in MS Word. 
Checking PDF documents for accessibility
Run the accessibility checker in Acrobat Pro by clicking ‘Prepare for accessibility’ and then ‘Check for accessibility’. A list of issues comes up in the accessibility panel on the right. Some issues have an easy ‘Fix’ option, while for some more complex you’ll need to do some research about how to fix and may need to modify things in the tags panel. For example, you may see a ‘heading nesting failed error’ that will require finding headings in the tags panel and updating them to the appropriate heading level to fit the document structure. If a heading skipped levels to be an <H3>, you could change it to be an <H2> in the tags panel, fixing the issues.
If you encounter a PDF with a lot of complex tag structure issues, be sure to save a copy of your original document so if the tag structure gets broken you have a backup to start over with.
While you can remediate accessibility in Acrobat Pro, it’s best to fix issues in the original source document, in the PowerPoint .ppt or Word .doc.
You can learn more about PDF document accessibility in the PDF accessibility BuckeyeLearn courses. Below is a screenshot of where to access the accessibility checker in Adobe Acrobat. 
Checking MS PowerPoint documents for accessibility
To check your MS PowerPoint presentation for accessibility, go to ‘File > Info > Check accessibility’ under ‘Inspect Presentation’.
The accessibility checking panel that pops up lists issues and provides information about how to fix them. Different issues are fixed in different ways.
Missing alt text for images is a common problem in presentations. To add alternative text on an image in MS PowerPoint right-click on the photo and choose ‘View Alt Text’. Then enter your alt description of the photo in the field provided. If it’s a purely decorative image check ‘Mark as decorative’.
When you’re exporting to PDF from PowerPoint using ‘Save as’, it’s important to check ‘Document structure tags for accessibility’ in the options so it will export an accessible PDF.
You can learn more about MS PowerPoint document accessibility in the Office document accessibility BuckeyeLearn courses. Below is a screenshot of where to access the accessibility checker in PowerPoint.
