Accessible Word (implementation guide)

2.4. Headers and footers

The header and footer are created using appropriate styles and are free of relevant information (page numbers are permitted).

What is meant by this?

The header, footer and slide numbers in Word are important elements for orientation, but should not contain any relevant information. Instead, they should be provided with placeholders such as "Date" or "Title".

If headers and footers are used, they should be created with appropriate styles to ensure that all headers and footers in the document have the same properties such as font, size and colour.

It is important to keep headers and footers free of relevant information, as screen readers and voice output devices often do not read out information from headers and footers and important information could therefore be overlooked. If headers and footers are read out by screen readers and voice output devices, this disrupts the reading flow because they are read out again on every page.

The use of style sheets for headers and footers is an important aspect, as the use of style sheets can ensure that headers and footers can be found quickly and easily. The use of style sheets can also ensure that changes to the header or footer are applied to all pages of the document on which this style sheet is used. If the headers are different on each page, this could be confusing for the screen reader and speech output.

Styles should be used to set headers and footers in Word documents. To do this, proceed as follows:

1. Click on "Insert" and then "Header" or "Footer"
2. Now select the option "Edit header" or "Edit footer". You should receive approval for the information stored in the header or footer and be able to edit it.
3. If this is not the case, this indicates that no style sheets were used to create the header or footer.

In addition, it is also possible to design the header and footer by double-clicking on the corresponding line at the start date or end of the document and entering the desired text.

When editing the header or footer, make sure that it does not contain any information that is important for understanding the document content.

In addition, use the functions offered by Word under "References" (see 2.5).