"Accessibility checker" button and "axesWord – Accessibility checker" pane

What it does

The Accessibility checker button opens the axesWord – Accessibility checker task pane.

Use it for

You can check your Word document for common accessibility issues before exporting it to PDF. The check covers the following categories:

• Metadata
• Headings
• Illustrations
• Tables
• Forms

This helps you identify errors early and fix them directly in Word.

How to use it

1. Click the Accessibility checker button to open the axesWord – Accessibility checker task pane.
2. Under Scope of checking, select which part of the document you want to check.
3. Click the Check button.
4. Under Results, review all check points marked with an error or a warning. Double-click a message to go to the affected location, and fix the issue there.
5. Click Check again to verify your corrections.
6. Done.

Accessibility checker at a glance

Scope of checking

In the Scope of checking drop-down list, you specify which part of the document is checked:

• Document
  The entire document is checked. Headers and footers are only included if you have assigned them the Section header or Section trailer role in the role mapping. Only with these roles are they included in the structure tree of the PDF document. For more information, see the article Headers and footers.
• Page range
  Only the pages you specify in the From (page) and To (page) fields are checked. Headers and footers are not checked in this case.
• Selection
  Only the area you have selected in the document is checked.

Results

After the check, the results are grouped by category. Use the arrow in front of an entry to expand or collapse a category or check point. When you expand a failed check point, the related messages are displayed, e.g., No alternative text found. The Page column indicates the page on which the issue was found.

The icons in front of the entries indicate the check result:

• Passed
  The check point passed.
• Error
  The check point failed. You should fix this error.
• Warning
  There may be an issue here. Review the location and fix the issue if necessary.
• Not applicable
  The check point does not apply, e.g., because the document does not contain any tables.

If a category contains at least one error, the category itself is also marked with a red cross.

Double-click to go to the affected location

When you double-click a message, axesWord helps you fix the issue. Depending on the check point, axesWord jumps to the affected location in the document and/or opens the relevant task pane or dialog box. There, you can quickly fix the issue yourself.

Description

Click a category, check point, or message in the results list. The Description area then provides an explanation.