College of Arts and Sciences

Focus 1 - Formatting Text and Headings

PDFs

Think About It: Evaluating PDFs

PDFs may all look alike, but accessibility depends on the original source. When possible, begin with an accessible Word document. Remediate issues before saving documents as a PDF. Scanned text must be digitized with OCR (optical character recognition). Confirm the readability and navigation of scanned documents with a screen reader. Making PDFs Accessible with Word (2:29)

Try It: Evaluate the Accessibility of the PDFs

  • Does the information really need to be saved as a PDF?
  • Confirm the text in PDFs can be recognized as digital characters so that screen readers can read text and describe on-screen elements aloud. If readings were scanned from a copier and saved as an image instead of text, the content cannot be read aloud with text-to-speech software.
  • Are the original copies clean – no highlighting, comments or underlining?
  • Are scanned files flattened images or can you highlight text and search for a keyword?
  • Confirm the reading order is presented in the proper sequence if assistive technology is utilized.
  • Are the reading order and navigation set correctly?
  • Are chapters and headings identifiable?
  • Request a digital version or consider alternative material if serious formatting issues exist.

Word Documents

Developing inclusive design processes ensures that information is accessible to a wider audience. Learn how to use tools available in Microsoft Word to format text elements in documents including: Fonts, Headings, Lists and Hyperlinks. Select readable and legible typefaces throughout your documents. Properly formatted bullets and numbered lists enhance readability and navigation. Descriptive words in links provide clear context. Redundant phrases like "click here" should be avoided. Underlining should be exclusive to active hyperlinks for clarity. Consistent heading styles ensure a logical structure within documents. Designate row and/or column headings to control logical navigation of data tables in Word.

Think About It: Hyperlinks

Format hyperlinks with descriptive text phrases such as the webpage title to identify the redirect location. Create Accessible Links in Word (2:09 minutes)

Try It: Create Meaningful Hyperlinks

  1. Navigate to the K-State homepage.
  2. Copy and paste the web address into a Word document.
  3. Select the whole URL, including the "https" at the beginning and the domain at the end.
  4. Right-click to open the context menu, then find and select Edit Hyperlink.
  5. In the dialog box, look for a text box labeled Text to display.
  6. Provide a descriptive title.

Think About It: Document Headings

Headings define the organizational structure of documents. Microsoft Word applies font styles (size and color) to visually indicate the sections. More importantly, a digital tag is added in the background to enable navigation for assistive technology. Learn how to use styles for headings to Improve Accessibility with Heading Styles (1:25 minutes)

Try It: Add Heading Styles

  1. Open a Word document and select the heading text.
  2. Select Home > Styles (or press Alt + H, then L), and then select the appropriate heading level (h1 -h4).
  3. h1 – Reserved for the title (only used once)
  4. h2 – Identifies the primary sections
  5. h3 & h4 – Indicates topics and subtopics

Think About It: Table Headers in Word

Tables organize information visually and help you show relationships between things. Heading rows and columns control the navigation order so data can be read out loud to people who use a screen reader. Create Accessible Tables in Word (2:18 minutes)

Try It: Add Table Headers

  1. Choose Insert > Table to insert a table.
  2. Choose the number of boxes you want across to create columns and then choose the number of boxes you want down to create rows for your table.
  3. On the Design tab, choose the Table Styles Options group, and then choose Header row. Other options include Banded Rows or Total Row.

Your table now has a header row. This means that, behind the scenes, Word and any assistive technologies can communicate intelligently about the table.

Note: When you add a table to your document, two new Table Tools tabs appear in the ribbon: Design and Layout.

Try It: Create Accessible Syllabi

  1. Download the 2025-26 Syllabus Template
  2. Save a copy on your local computer
  3. Review Comments and confirm your finalized syllabus meets minimum expectations of content within each course syllabus.
  4. Confirm that you have maintained an accessible heading structure in the document.
  5. Delete Notes for Using this Template
  6. Delete Comments before adding your completed syllabus to Canvas.
  7. Contact your Instructional Designer, Deborah Goins, eflat@ksu.edu, for assistance.

Learn More About It: Accessible Documents