Word Documents

Microsoft Word documents can be made accessible in three ways: 1) as marked up Word documents saved for read-only, 2) as marked up documents saved as PDF files, and 3) as marked up html pages.

Marking Up Word Documents

When you write a document in Microsoft Word, be sure to use styles to format text such as titles, headings, and paragraphs. The styles provide structure information when you create accessible documents. For example, do not use the Enter key to add space between paragraphs. Instead, use the "Spacing Before" and "Spacing After" paragraph properties to achieve this effect.

Use the Columns command in Word to create columns. Don't use tabs to simulate double-column text.

Use the Insert Table command or Draw Table tool in Word to create tables.

Add alternate text to all images. For example, in Word 2000, you can add alternate text describing an image by using the Web tab of the illustrations Properties dialog box. In Word XP, click on the image, open Format>Drawing Canvas>Web and enter alternative text.

If you created an illustration out of several smaller illustrations, use the Group command to group them into a single illustration.

(Reproduced from "Adobe Acrobat - How To Create Accessible Adobe® PDF Files Booklet")

As Word Documents

As PDF Documents

As html Pages

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