It is the week before classes start and someone tells you, "Just run Word's accessibility checker." That sounds useful, except you have never used it, and the advice can feel a little too casual when you are already staring at a compliance warning. The good news is that Word's checker really is a practical place to begin. The less-good news is that it works best when you understand what it can and cannot do.
What the Checker Is Good At
Word's built-in accessibility checker is good at surfacing common structural problems. It can flag missing alt text, improper headings, some table issues, and missing language settings. That makes it especially useful for faculty who need a fast first pass on a syllabus, assignment sheet, or handout before distributing it to students.
Real Example
Suppose "Course Policies" is manually bolded instead of formatted with a real heading style. Visually, the section may look perfectly fine. The accessibility checker may still flag that structure because bold text does not give assistive technology the same navigational information a real heading does. Once you apply Heading 2 and rerun the checker, the issue may disappear immediately.
How to Use It
Open your syllabus in Word, go to the Review tab, and choose Check Accessibility. Word will generate a panel showing flagged issues along with brief explanations and, in many cases, suggested fixes. Work through the list inside the document rather than treating the report as an abstract warning log. After you make corrections, run the checker again. That second pass matters, because accessibility problems often cluster together and one fix can reveal another issue you did not notice the first time.
What It Does Not Do Perfectly
The checker is helpful, but it is not omniscient. It can tell you an image has alt text, but it cannot always tell you whether the alt text is any good. It can notice some structural problems, but it cannot fully judge whether a document is easy to navigate or whether the writing inside a link or description is actually useful. In other words, it is strong at catching detectable issues and weaker at judging quality.
Workflow
The best workflow is to run Word's checker early, fix the issues it clearly identifies, rerun it, and then use AdaDocumentMaker as a second compliance review when you want a more faculty-friendly report or want to catch issues beyond Word's narrow checklist. That combination is usually much more useful than relying on either tool alone.
FAQ
Is Word's accessibility checker enough?
It is a strong first step, but it is not always a complete review.
Where is it in Word?
Usually under the Review tab, though exact layout can vary slightly by version.
Will it fix issues automatically?
Not usually. It points you to the problem, and you make the correction.
Should I still review the document after using it?
Yes. The checker is a tool, not a substitute for judgment.
A Practical Place to Start
If you have never run Word's accessibility checker, use it on your syllabus today, then upload the file to AdaDocumentMaker for a second pass showing whether anything important still needs attention.