How to export an accessible PDF from Word
In Word, go to File > Save As, choose PDF, click Options, and tick Document structure tags for accessibility. Run Review > Check Accessibility first and clear every error. Avoid Print to PDF and the Adobe PDF printer driver, because both discard the tag structure that screen readers depend on.
What does the accessibility tag structure actually do?
A tagged PDF carries an invisible layer describing what each piece of content is. A heading is marked as a heading, a table cell is marked as a data cell, and an image carries its alternative text. Screen readers such as NVDA and JAWS read that layer rather than the visual arrangement of ink on the page.
Without tags, a PDF is a picture of a document. Assistive technology falls back to guessing reading order from the position of text on the page, which produces sidebars read mid-sentence and table columns read as continuous prose.
Why does Print to PDF destroy accessibility?
Print to PDF and the Adobe PDF printer driver both work by sending the document to a virtual printer. A printer receives page description instructions: put this glyph at this coordinate in this font. Structure is not part of that conversation, so it is discarded on the way through.
The resulting file looks identical on screen and fails every accessibility check. The same applies to the Microsoft Print to PDF option in the Print dialog. Only File > Save As > PDF with the Options box ticked, or the Acrobat ribbon's Create PDF command, preserves the tags Word has built.
One more setting matters in the same Options dialog. Tick Create bookmarks using: Headings so the PDF opens with a navigable bookmark panel generated from your heading styles.
What should you fix in Word before you export?
Run Review > Check Accessibility and work through the Inspection Results pane. Errors block access outright and warnings degrade it. Both should be cleared before a document goes to publication.
Four fixes account for most failures:
- Heading styles. Apply Heading 1 through Heading 4 from the Styles gallery instead of bolding text and increasing its size. The exported PDF builds its tag tree and its bookmark panel directly from these styles.
- Alternative text. Right-click an image, choose View Alt Text, and describe what the image conveys in a sentence. For a chart, the alt text should state the finding the chart shows. Purely decorative images should be marked as decorative.
- Table header rows. Select the top row, open Table Layout, and turn on Repeat Header Rows. Then tick Header Row in Table Design so those cells export as TH tags instead of TD.
- Link text. Replace "click here" and bare URLs with text that describes the destination, such as "Annual Report accessibility statement".
Merged and split cells are the other common trap. A screen reader announces a table by row and column position, so any table with merged cells in the body will read unpredictably. Split the data across two simple tables instead.
How do you set the document language and title?
Language tells a screen reader which pronunciation engine to use. Select all text, then use Review > Language > Set Proofing Language and choose English (Australia). If the document quotes another language, select that passage and set it separately.
Title is set in File > Info, in the Properties panel on the right. A PDF with no title is announced by its file name, so "Draft_v7_FINAL" becomes the document's spoken name in the browser tab and in the screen reader.
What do WCAG 2.1 AA and PDF/UA require?
WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the standard referenced by the Australian Government's Digital Service Standard and by Australian Human Rights Commission guidance on the Disability Discrimination Act. For a PDF it means a correct reading order, text alternatives for images, a minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratio for body text, headings that reflect the real document hierarchy, and content that stays usable when reflowed.
PDF/UA (ISO 14289) is the technical specification for how those requirements are expressed inside the PDF file itself. Word's export produces a tagged PDF that satisfies most of it. Full PDF/UA conformance usually needs a final pass in Acrobat Pro to set tab order to Use Document Structure and to confirm the tag tree in the Accessibility checker.
At Ideaseed, roughly 70% of the government reports that arrive for accessibility remediation were exported correctly but built on manual formatting, so the tags exist and describe nothing useful.
How do you make this repeatable?
Build the requirements into the template. A Word template with a defined heading hierarchy, a table style that already includes a header row, and the proofing language set to English (Australia) removes most of the manual work from every report produced from it.
Lock it down with Review > Restrict Editing so staff apply approved styles. The Accessibility Checker then becomes a confirmation step.
Accessibility is decided in Word, before the file reaches Acrobat. Use File > Save As with document structure tags ticked, clear the Accessibility Checker, and build the source document on real heading styles so the exported tags describe something meaningful. A well-built template makes that the default outcome.
If your reports are being remediated after export instead of being built correctly from the start, a free template health check will show you where the structure is breaking down.
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