Resource Accessibility Standards + Guidance

Making Accessible Word Documents

This guide explains how to create accessible Microsoft Word documents and properly export them to tagged, screen‑reader–friendly PDFs.

Organization: Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Published Year: 2025
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Drawing from Massachusetts state web standards, the guide walks through using Word’s Accessibility Checker, applying best practices for text clarity (like font size, headings, and sensory‑neutral language), adding alt text to images, structuring tables and links correctly, and ensuring color contrast.

It then details how to export documents to PDF with bookmarks and document structure tags enabled so that the resulting PDF maintains accessibility. The resource includes a practice document and recommends workflows that minimize post‑export fixes

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