Hamza, a young male, sitting at his desk in a modern office lookingat his laptop screen with a contented look

Creating Accessible PDFs in Word

Guide our HR hero Hamza as he creates his first accessible PDF

Hamza gets an email from his boss asking him to email the new recruits the company onboarding document as an accessible PDF by tomorrow.

Hamza is looking at his screen with a worries expression

Hamza: "Oh no, I have no idea how to do that! What can I do?"

Hamza is turning away from his screen and looks thoughtful

Hamza: "My colleague Julia usually knows about this kind of stuff, I'll ask her"

A woman with red hair, Julia, walks towards Hamza. Hamza is smiling kindly

Julia: "Of course, I'll be glad to help."

Julia is pointing towards Hamza's screen while Hamza looks at it with interest

Julia: "I'll talk you through the 7 steps you need to do starting with Step 1, adding image Alt Text.

If you need any extra tips, click the tip button below. I love talking about accessibility"

Julia: "I'll guide you through 7 essential steps to make your PDFs accessible to everyone. Each step ensures that people using screen readers, keyboard navigation, or other assistive technologies can access your document. Don't worry - I'm here to help if you get stuck"

Hamza is looking at his screen with a determined expression

Hamza: "Ok, I'm ready. Let's get started."

Hamza's laptop screen shows an open MS Word document featuring a selected image

Julia: "This image needs a description adding to it called Alt Text."

Hamza looks away from his screen thoughfully

Hamza: "What should I write for the Alt Text?"

Julia: "If someone can't see this image, what information would they miss? That's your alt text".

Hamza has his arms raised in joy and a big smile on his face. Julia is standing beside him.

Demo Complete, well done

Julia: "Good alt text gives screen reader users the same information sighted users get from images. Let's move on to step 2, text fonts and colours"

Julia: "Describe what's important, not artistic details. For decorative images (design lines, patterns), mark them 'decorative' so screen readers skip them entirely".

Julia is gesturing towards Hamza's screen and he looks a little shocked

Not quite...

Julia: "Thomas, a screen reader user, hears 'image, image of company building'. Screen readers announce 'image' automatically so no need to include it at the start".

Julia: "If someone can't see this image, what information would they miss? That's your alt text".

Julia is gesturing towards Hamza's screen and he looks shocked

Oh no...

Julia: "Priya, a screen reader user hears 'image, I M G underscore 3 8 4 7 dot J P G' and can't understand what image is shown".

Julia: "If someone can't see this image, what information would they miss? That's your alt text".

video demonstrating how to add alt text on MS Word by selecting the image, then clicking Picture in the top menu, then clicking Alt Text in the tool bar, then typing the short image description into the alt text box in the at text side menu

You added the Alt Text: Modern looking company headquarters building with white panels and large windows

Demo Complete, well done

Hamza successfully learned about accessible PDFs

Want to go further? Test your PDFs with a keyboard and screen reader users for feedback.