How to make Word documents accessible

Notes are usually short bits of text at the end of a section, page or document. For example, a footnote or endnote. 

Notes typically have a small number, letter or symbol next to them. This is also shown next to the text they relate to. 

Notes usually explain things like: 

• What a word or phrase means 
• Where specific data or information comes from (its source) 
• Where to find more information about a specific topic.

A note can be a good way to share extra information. People can decide whether to read it or just focus on the main information in your document. 

How to make notes accessible in Word 

Avoid symbols 

Avoid using symbols, like asterisks (*) with your notes. Instead, use numbers or letters. 

This is because some assistive technology, like screen readers, may not recognise and read out some symbols. This means some users might miss notes or not understand what they relate to. 

Use the footnote and endnote tools in Word 

Word has tools you can use to add footnotes and endnotes to your document in the 'References' menu.  

We recommend using these to add any notes to your document because they: 

• Help you format notes consistently 
• Add links to help people find notes 
• Include formatting that means assistive technology correctly identifies notes 

Find out how to use the footnote and endnote tools in Word. 

Manual notes 

If you don't use the footnote or endnote tools in Word, you can add notes to your document manually. If you do this, you must make it clear: 

• What text is a note 
• Which text the note relates to 

To do this, we recommend you: 

• Start the note with the word 'note' and a number or letter. For example, 'Note 1' 
• For any text that has a note, add '(see note)' after it and reference the number or letter of the note. For example, '(see note 1)' 

Use descriptive link text 

If any of your notes include links, make sure you also follow our links advice.