Fix Accessibility issues in Word

(usually Posted August 14, 2024 By ~ Sirin Salma)

Hello, Microsoft 365 Insiders! I’m Shireen Salma, a Product Manager on the Accessible Authoring team. I’m excited to announce that Word for Windows now lets you fix many accessibility issues with a single click using Quick Fixes, making it easier to create more inclusive documents.

Fix multiple accessibility issues with quick fixes in Word for Windows

Word’s Accessibility Assistant flags accessibility issues in your documents and offers suggested fixes to make it easier to create accessible content. Going through each issue one by one can be time-consuming, so we’ve introduced a new feature called Quick Fixes that lets you fix multiple issues with one click.

How it works

1. Open a Word document that contains a significant amount of text. (In the example below, the document contains images and text in a variety of low-contrast colors.)
2. Get started by selecting an accessibility assistant. examine > Check accessibility.

   Check the Accessibility button on the Review tab of the Word ribbon.

3. Accessibility Assistant groups all related issues into one quick fix card so you can resolve them. For example, if a document has multiple color violations (similar shades), those violations are grouped together. Color and contrast Quick fix cards in the Accessibility Assistant pane on the right side of the screen.

   Accessibility support window with color and contrast quick fix cards

4. When you select a quick fix card, accessibility supporters will provide higher-contrast color suggestions. Select All Select the checkbox and click applyselected Fix this issue everywhere in your document at once. It’s that easy!

   Accessibility support window in Word with quick fix suggestions for text contrast issues

Scenarios to try

Use this feature to review image alt text. You can use it to review automatically generated alt text for all images in your document at once. Review alternative text Quick Fix Cards. If you are satisfied with the alternative text for an image, check the box for each image (or Select All) Click Approve selected items.

Accessibility support pane in Word with quick fix suggestions for reviewing alternative text

effectiveness

This feature is available to Microsoft 365 Insiders running Windows Beta version 16.0.17726.10000 or later.

Not yet? It’s probably us, not you.

Features are released over time to ensure everything works smoothly. They are released slowly to a larger number of Insiders, highlighting features you may not have. Sometimes we remove elements based on your feedback to make them even better. This is rare, but we also have the option to completely remove a feature from the product, even if you, as an Insider, had the opportunity to try it out.

feedback

Your feedback is important to us! Let us know what you think about this feature. Let me know what you think Click the button in the Accessibility Support panel. Happy inclusive writing!

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