How to make Word documents accessible

Text headings help people understand what your document is about and how it's organised. They also help people find specific information in your document.

Most people navigate documents using headings. People looking at documents rarely read all the text in order. Instead, they skim the document and use headings to help them find the information they're most interested in.

People who use screen readers often read documents by asking their screen reader to read out all the headings. They then pick and jump to specific headings to find the information they're most interested in.

This means that the headings in your Word document are very important and must be accessible. They must:

• Give your document a clear, logical structure
• Describe the content that comes after them
• Be formatted using the correct heading style
• Have appropriate visual formatting

Download our accessible Word document (Word doc, 1 MB) to see an example of accessible headings.

How to make headings accessible in Word

Create a clear, logical structure

Headings split your document into sections. Creating a clear, logical heading structure will help people understand how it's organised.

Try to plan out your heading structure before you write your document. Plan what the main sections and sub-sections will be about, and what headings you'll give them.

All documents should have a heading level 1, which tells the user what the document is about. This is the most important heading in your document and it's usually at the top of page 1. There is almost always only one heading level 1 in a document.

For example, the heading level 1 in our Word document example (Word doc, 1 MB) is 'Vegetable guide'

The headings for the main sections in your document are heading level 2s. Think of these like the names of chapters in a book. They are the second most important headings in your document.

For example, our Word document example is split into eight main sections - one for each main type of vegetable. The heading for each of these sections is a heading level 2. For example, 'Root vegetables'.

Sections within these main sections start with a heading level 3. And sections within those sub-sections start with a heading level 4.

In our Word document example, 'Carrots' and 'Turnips' are heading level 3s. 'Chantenay carrots' and 'Nantes carrots' are heading level 4s below the 'Carrots' heading level 3. 'How to grow turnips' is a heading level 4 below the 'Turnips' heading level 3.

Try not to use more than six levels of headings in your document. If you use more, it's a sign that your heading structure is too complicated.

Make sure the wording is descriptive

Once you've planned and assigned an importance level to all headings in your document, check that the heading wording is descriptive.

Your heading wording should briefly describe the information following it. This helps people use the headings to work out what sections of your document are about.

For example, the heading 'Root vegetables' in our Word document example (Word doc, 1 MB) is descriptive because all the information in that section is about root vegetables.

Format using heading styles

You must format your headings using heading styles:

1. Highlight your heading text
2. Go to 'Home' in the main menu and navigate to the 'Styles' sub-menu
3. Find the heading style that matches your heading level. For example, you should format your heading level 1 using the 'Heading 1' style
4. Select the style

5.  

You must format all headings in your document with the right heading style. This helps people who use screen readers to find headings and understand your heading structure.

To check what style you have applied to a heading, position your cursor in the heading text. The style you've applied will be highlighted in the 'Styles' sub-menu.

Alternatively, open the Navigation Pane (Microsoft Support website). This doesn't tell you specifically what style you have applied, but it can still help you make sure the heading formatting you've applied matches your heading structure.

Apply appropriate visual formatting

You must apply appropriate visual formatting to your headings. This helps people looking at your document find headings and understand your heading structure.

Use formatting like text size and bolding to make your headings stand out and show how important they are:

• The more important your heading is, the bigger it should be. For example, your heading level 1 should be bigger than your heading level 2s.
• All headings with the same heading level should look the same
• Non-heading (normal) text should look less prominent than heading text. This usually means that it's smaller and/or not bold.

We recommend avoiding using italics and block capitals to format your headings because they can be hard for some people to read. We also recommend avoiding underlining text, as this can make the text look like a link.

You must make sure that the heading text colour and the background colour have good colour contrast. We recommend changing the light blue default heading styles colour to a darker colour.

For example, our Word document example (Word doc, 1 MB) has the following visual formatting:

• Heading level 1: black, size 28, bold
• All heading level 2s: black, size 20, bold
• All heading level 3s: black, size 14, bold
• All heading level 4s: black, size 12, bold
• Non-heading (normal) text: black, size 12, not bold

We recommend applying your visual formatting to the heading styles in your document. That way, you don't need to manually format all the heading text.

• If your headings don't already have appropriate visual formatting, modify the heading style manually (Microsoft Support website)
• If your headings do already have appropriate visual formatting, modify the heading style by updating it to match formatting (Microsoft Support website)