Many HTML pages are still being created using Words in-built 'Export to HTML' function, so in this weeks tip I explore some simple ways to make the resulting web pages a little more accessible (than they would otherwise be). Using Word to create HTML pages is not ideal, as the program has a tendency to add a lot of extra 'junk' to the resulting markup; the extra markup is used to try to make the Web page look similar to the original Word document.

However here are two important techniques that will help you to ensure your resulting web pages will be a bit more accessible, particularly for people who are using screen readers:

1. Use the styles facility within Word to add structure to your documents, e.g. instead of just making your headings bold, use styles to assign the appropriate level of heading. The structure will be retained when the document is converted to HTML. 'Screen readers' will use the document structure to help make reading the web page more efficient, e.g. by presenting all of the headings on a page in a summary list, so that the user can jump straight to the part they are interested in.
2. Add alternative text to all your images (right click, and select format picture); these labels will be retained after the document is converted to HTML and can be read out to the user by screen reading software.