Accessibility Testing in Documents

Color Contrast

Color blindness affects 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women. Make sure to check the color contrast of the content in the document. The WCAG guidelines require a color contrast ratio of 4.5:1. You can use different tools to check the color contrast between the background and foreground.

WebAIM

WebAIM provides a free color contrast checker tool. Learn how to use the color contrast checkers on the accessible content page.

Accessibility Checker

Microsoft Word provides a basic accessibility checker. It will not cover all the accessibility issues because some of them will require manual testing.

Here is how you can check for accessibility:

1. Click on Review > Accessibility
   
   
2. This should open up a window showing all the accessibility issues in the document.
   
   
3. When you click on an issue in the list, a window will open describing the issue and how it can be resolved.
   
   

Go through the list and fix each accessibility issue.

Here's another way to access the accessibility checker in Word. This may be helpful for those using an older version of Word. Go to Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility. This will open up accessibility checker window.

Manual Testing

Accessibility checkers do not cover all the accessibility issues. You will still need to check the following issues manually:

• Valid alt text: make sure the alt text conveys the meaning of the content
• Valid hyperlinks: make sure the hyperlinks are correct by testing and following the link to be sure the page you are linking to is still valid
• Text in images: make sure the images do not include text except for a logo. If you do not have a choice, add all the text as alt text and display it on the screen
• Color contrast