How to make Word documents accessible

Convert your Word document to an accessible PDF

If you create a PDF from your Word document, you must make sure it is a tagged PDF.

What a tagged PDF is

If you create a PDF from your Word document to share online, you must export or save your Word document as a tagged PDF.

Tags in a tagged PDF give a document structure and tells assistive technologies how to read it. If you tag your document incorrectly, or not at all, it will be inaccessible to these users.

Untagged PDF will also not meet basic accessibility regulations.

Word documents with complex layouts

Most simple Word documents converted to tagged PDFs will be accessible to your users if they were created using:

heading styles or bookmarks
descriptive link text
images with alt text added

Word documents with complex layouts, including multiple columns, tables and certain form field elements will not tag correctly when converted to a tagged PDF.

This makes these elements inaccessible to some users.

You must be able to provide any PDF information with complex layouts in an alternative format to your users, like an accessible:

web page (preferred format)
Word document

How to convert a Word document to a tagged PDF (Office 365)

First, run Word's accessibility checker. This will help you find and fix any accessibility issues you may have missed.

Go to the 'Review' tab.
Select 'Check Accessibility'.
Correct any issues, like marking decorative images as 'decorative' or adding alt text to informative images.

Next, export your Word document to a tagged PDF.

Open the 'File' menu, then go to 'Info'.
Under 'Properties', check you added a document title in the 'Title' field - this appears in the browser tab for your PDF.
Then, go to 'Export'.
Select 'Print'.
In the 'Create PDF/XPS Document', select the 'Create PDF/XPS' icon.
If you did not run the accessibility checker and there are issues, you will be asked to 'Investigate Accessibility' - you should correct any issues before continuing.
Select 'Options'.
Under 'Include non-printing information', tick the following boxes:
- 'Create bookmarks using:'
- Either 'Headings' or 'Word bookmarks' (only selectable if you have added bookmarks).
- 'Document properties' (only selectable if a document title was added)
- 'Document structure tags for accessibility'
Select OK, then save your file as normal on your device.

Screenshot of Export and Save As 'Options' menu — Select your PDF tagging options in 'Include non-printing information'.

You can also use 'Save As' or 'Save a copy' to create a tagged PDF. To do this, select the PDF file type (".pdf), Investigate Accessibility (if it appears, then go to 'More options' and 'Options'.

Do not create your PDF by 'printing' it as a PDF. This flattens a document, removing important information like hyperlinks, image alt text and heading structure. It makes your document invisible to assistive technologies like screen readers.