How to make accessible documents in the first place.

The one habit that matters most

Use real styles instead of formatting text to look like a heading.

If you make a line big and bold, a sighted reader sees a heading and a screen reader sees a big bold paragraph. If you apply the Heading 1 style, both do. Nearly every structural problem we repair traces back to this one habit, and it is free to adopt.

Microsoft Word

• Apply Heading 1, 2 and 3 in order. Never skip a level to get a particular size — change what the style looks like instead.
• Use the built-in list buttons. Typing a hyphen and a space makes something that looks like a list and is not one.
• Insert tables through Insert → Table, mark the header row, and tick “Repeat Header Rows.” Never build a table with tabs.
• Avoid merged cells where you can. They are the single most common reason a table has to be rebuilt.
• Right-click each image and add alt text that conveys the meaning. Mark purely decorative images as decorative.
• Write descriptive link text. “Download the 2026 budget” rather than “click here.”
• Set the document title in File → Info, and set the language.
• Run Review → Check Accessibility before you export. It is not comprehensive, but it catches the obvious.

PowerPoint

• Use the built-in slide layouts rather than dragging text boxes onto a blank slide. Layouts carry structure; loose boxes do not.
• Give every slide a title, even if you hide it visually.
• Check reading order on each slide through the Selection Pane or the Accessibility Checker.
• Do not rely on color alone in charts. Add labels or patterns.
• Put anything essential in the slide content, not only in the speaker notes.

Excel

• Give every sheet tab a meaningful name.
• Define header rows and use Format as Table so the structure is explicit.
• One table per sheet where possible, starting at A1, with no blank spacer rows or columns inside the data.
• Avoid merged cells entirely. In spreadsheets they break navigation outright.
• Add alt text to charts and images, and make sure the underlying data is reachable.

Exporting to PDF

• In Word, use File → Save As → PDF with “Document structure tags for accessibility” enabled, or the Acrobat ribbon’s Create PDF. Do not use Print to PDF — it discards every tag you just created.
• From InDesign, use Export → Adobe PDF (Interactive or Print) with Create Tagged PDF on, and set the articles panel and reading order first.
• After export, open the PDF and check that tags actually came through. They frequently do not survive intact.

Before you publish

• Ask whether the document needs to be a PDF at all. A web page is easier to make accessible, easier to maintain, and works better on a phone. Publishing as HTML is often the cheapest accessibility decision available.
• If it does need to be a PDF, keep the source file. Remediating from a clean source is dramatically cheaper than remediating from the export.