Because many organizations, such as government and standards groups, continue to revise their requirements so everyone in their audiences can access information, Microsoft Office 2010 introduces the Accessibility Checker in Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft Excel 2010, and Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 to help you identify and resolve accessibility issues in your files.
What do you want to do?
Learn about Accessibility Checker
Similar to spelling checker alerting you to potential spelling errors, Accessibility Checker alerts you to certain accessibility issues in your file so that you can fix potential problems that might keep someone with a disability from accessing your content.
Notes
- Fixing some issues might require that you change, reformat or otherwise update your content. In addition to alerting you to potential problems, Accessibility Checker also lets you know about application features that you can use to make your content more accessible.
- There might be issues that you choose not to fix, or which are only intended to be informative. You can save and distribute your file without addressing the issues Accessibility Checker identifies.
The Accessibility Checker checks your document against a set of possible issues that users who have disabilities might experience in your file. Each issue is classified as an Error, a Warning or a Tip.
- Error: An accessibility error is given for content that makes a file very difficult or impossible for people with disabilities to understand.
- Warning: An accessibility warning is given for content that in most, but not all, cases makes a file difficult for people with disabilities to understand.
- Tip: An accessibility tip is given for content that people with disabilities can understand, but that might be better organized or presented in a way that would maximize their experience.
Whenever the Accessibility Checker finds an issue, the task pane shows information about why the content might be inaccessible. Selecting the issue then shows instructions on how to repair or revise it.
For detailed explanations of the issues the Accessibility Checker looks for, see Accessibility Checker Rules.
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Use Accessibility Checker
- Click the File tab.
- Click Info.
- Under Prepare for Sharing, an alert will appear if Accessibility Checker has detected any potential accessibility issues.
- If you want to view and repair the issues in your file, click Check for Issues, and then click Check Accessibility.
- You are returned to your file where the Accessibility Checker task pane is open, showing the inspection results.
- Click on a specific issue to see Additional Information and steps you can take to fix or revise the content.
Note If the content in the additional information pane in the bottom of the Accessibility Checker is hard to scroll because you can't use the mouse, press F6 to focus on the task pane, tab until the focus is in that area, and then try to scroll with the keyboard.
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