Accessibility finding
Word, Excel and PowerPoint files without headings, alternative texts, table headers or language
Accessibility Error Severity: Medium
Part of the audit Office document accessibility. Finding id: accessibility.officeDocuments.
What it costs you
Screen reader users move through a long document by its headings. Without them they have to listen from the top to find a section.
What to do
Mark headings with the built-in heading styles, not with bold or a larger font, and upload the file again at the same URL. Consider publishing the content as a web page instead.
What it checks
- Document has no headings
- Images without descriptions
- Tables without header rows
- Document language not set
How to fix it
Repair the document in its own program
- Mark headings with the built-in heading styles, not with bold or a larger font.
- Give every image that carries information an alternative text; mark the others as decorative.
- Mark the first row of each data table as its header row.
- Set the document's language.
- Run the program's own accessibility check before you upload the file.
How to check: Recrawl: the file is no longer reported.
Thresholds
| Name | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
min_words_for_headings | 300 | A text document shorter than this many words is not expected to have headings. |