How to make Word documents accessible

You must make sure your document has a clear layout and intuitive visual reading order. This will help people engage with and understand the information in your document.

Documents that are cluttered or have an unclear reading order can be frustrating and difficult for people to read. This may cause people to miss out on important information.

Documents in English are read from left to right and top to bottom. Make sure you layout your document so the content makes sense when read in this order.

The only time your document should have a different reading order is if some or all of it is in a language that is read from right to left, like Arabic.

Page orientation

We recommend creating Word documents in portrait orientation by default. This is because:

• Around 60% of people visit our websites using mobile. Providing portrait documents makes it less likely that users will need to zoom in or change the way they normally hold their phone to view them.
• The longer a line of text is, the harder it is for people to move easily to the start of the next line - especially if you need to scroll to see it. Line length is typically shorter in portrait documents than landscape documents.

Only use landscape orientation if you have a good reason. For example, to layout an image or table that would be hard to view or navigate in portrait orientation.

Text orientation and formatting

All text in your document must be horizontal. This makes it easier to read for as many people as possible.

We also recommend you:

• Use a common font, like Arial. Avoid overly decorative fonts
• Format text no smaller than size 12
• Avoid using italics or block capitals - some people find them hard to read
• Avoid underlining text (unless it's a link)

You should format headings following our headings advice for Word documents.

If you use colour to convey meaning (colour coding), you must provide the information in text too.

If you need to hide or redact text, you should remove it from the document. Don't hide it by making it the same colour as your page background - you might forget it's there and screen reader users will still be able to access it.

Columns

You can use columns in your Word document, providing you format them correctly.

You must only add columns to your document using the columns insertion tool. This is in the 'Layout' menu in the 'Page Setup' section.

Don't layout text in columns using tables, text boxes or the spacebar or tab key. This can make the information in your document difficult for screen reader users to access and understand.

Headers and footers

Document headers and footers typically include document information, like title, author, creation date and page number.

Including information in a header and footer in your document can help people navigate and understand your document. However, header and footer content isn't accessible for everyone. For example:

• Screen readers often don't tell users about header and footer content unless users specifically request it. Or they don't detect and read out the content at all
• Headers and footers are usually visually hidden in Word online in edit mode. Users must change the settings to get them to appear

This means that, if you decide to include a header and/or footer in your Word document, you must:

• Only add a header and/or footer to your document using the 'Header and Footer' tools. They are in the 'Insert' menu.
• Keep the content in your header and/or footer consistent - it should include the same or similar information on every page it appears on
• Repeat any information you put in the header and footer in the main page text (apart from page numbers)
• Make sure the page numbers in your header or footer match the page numbers of the actual document. For example, the third page of your document should be marked as page 3.

We recommend avoiding using roman numerals as page numbers, as most people find them harder to read and understand than numbers.

Watermarks

A watermark is an image that appears behind the main text of the document. It is usually a light colour or transparent. People usually use watermarks to mark documents as a draft or confidential.

We recommend avoiding using watermarks because they are usually difficult to see. Instead, state that the document is a draft or confidential in the page text at the beginning of your document.

If you still want to use a watermark, you must make sure it:

• Meets colour contrast requirements
• Has a good text description that explains what it means - follow our Word document images accessibility advice

Footnotes and endnotes

You can use footnotes or endnotes in your Word document, providing you format them correctly.

You must only add footnotes or endnotes to your document using the 'Insert Footnote' and 'Insert Endnote' tools. They are in the 'References' menu in the 'Footnotes' section.

Don't layout footnotes or endnotes in any other way. This can make the information in your document difficult for screen reader users to access and understand.

Make sure you also follow our links advice when adding any links to your footnotes or endnotes.