How to Use the Accessibility Checker in Microsoft Word to Audit Documents for Screen Readers

Authoring documents that are accessible to all individuals—including people with visual impairments using assistive screen readers, colour vision deficiencies, or cognitive learning differences—is both an ethical imperative and a legal compliance requirement across corporate, educational, and governmental sectors. When a Microsoft Word file lacks proper structural headings, omits descriptive alternative text for images, or formats tables without declared header rows, screen readers cannot accurately interpret or navigate the content. Microsoft Word incorporates an automated diagnostic tool known as the Accessibility Checker that analyses documents in real time, flags non-compliant formatting, and guides authors through one-click remediation.

Why Accessibility Auditing Is Essential for Documents

Assistive technologies such as screen readers (JAWS, NVDA, and Windows Narrator) rely on underlying structural semantics rather than purely visual formatting. For instance, increasing the font size and applying bold styling to a line of text makes it look like a heading visually, but a screen reader treats it as a standard paragraph unless it is formally tagged with a native Heading style (e.g. Heading 1 or Heading 2).

The Accessibility Checker in Microsoft Word evaluates documents against international accessibility standards (such as WCAG 2.1 and Section 508), categorising detected discrepancies into three priority tiers:

• Errors: Content that makes the document impossible or extremely difficult for a person with a disability to read or understand (e.g. images missing alternative text or tables with merged cells that break read order).
• Warnings: Formatting that makes content difficult to navigate or interpret in most, but not all, scenarios (such as unclear hyperlink display text or complex heading hierarchy skips).
• Tips: Opportunities to improve overall user comprehension (such as audio/video elements lacking transcripts or text contrast that could be improved).

How to Launch the Accessibility Checker in Word

To inspect your active Word document for accessibility issues:

1. Navigate to the Review tab on the Word Ribbon.
2. Locate the Accessibility group.
3. Click Check Accessibility. Alternatively, navigate to File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility.

An interactive Accessibility task pane opens on the right side of the workspace, presenting an organised inspection summary of all detected items grouped by category.

Resolving Common Accessibility Violations

Clicking any reported violation in the inspection list automatically highlights the offending element directly within your document body, accompanied by a Recommended Actions panel explaining why the rule matters and offering immediate corrective tools.

1. Adding Missing Alternative (Alt) Text to Images

Images, charts, and shapes must convey their informational purpose to users who cannot see them:

1. In the Accessibility pane, click an item listed under Missing alternative text.
2. Word selects the graphic and displays recommended options in the task pane.
3. Click Add a description or open the Alt Text editor.
4. Type a concise, 1–2 sentence explanation of what the image depicts and why it is relevant to the topic.
5. If the graphic is purely aesthetic (such as a decorative page border or divider line), tick Mark as decorative so screen readers gracefully skip it.

2. Repairing Heading Hierarchy and Document Structure

Screen reader users navigate documents by jumping between headings. If you skip levels—for example, placing a Heading 3 directly beneath a Heading 1 without an intermediate Heading 2—the Accessibility Checker flags a structural warning:

1. Click the flagged heading entry under Heading order.
2. Click the recommended action dropdown to demote or promote the heading style to its logically correct hierarchical tier.

3. Declaring Table Header Rows and Column Bounds

When assistive technology reads a data table, it needs to announce the column and row header before reciting cell contents. Without declared headers, numbers become meaningless lists of figures:

1. Select the flagged table in your document.
2. Go to the Table Design tab on the Ribbon.
3. Ensure that Header Row (and First Column if applicable) is ticked.
4. Right-click the top header row, select Table Properties, go to the Row tab, and tick Repeat as header row at the top of each page.

4. Replacing Vague Hyperlinks with Descriptive Text

Hyperlinks formatted simply as “Click here,” “Read more,” or as raw URLs (e.g. https://example.com/item/3482) make navigation tedious when screen readers extract links into an alphabetical list. The checker prompts you to replace generic anchor text with descriptive labels that specify the destination, such as “Review the 2026 Annual Budget Report.”

Enabling Continuous Accessibility Checking in the Status Bar

Rather than running audits solely before publication, you can instruct Word to monitor accessibility continuously while you compose your document:

1. At the bottom of the Accessibility task pane, tick the checkbox labelled Keep accessibility checker running while I work.
2. Look at the bottom status bar of the Microsoft Word application window.
3. An Accessibility: Good to go badge appears.

If you insert an image without alt text or introduce unformatted styling, the badge dynamically changes to Accessibility: Investigate, allowing you to rectify formatting errors immediately before they multiply across drafts.