This guidance currently aligns with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and is being updated to reflect WCAG 2.2. 

Organisations subject to the Web Accessibility Directive or the European Accessibility Act should refer to WCAG 2.2 (W3C.org)(w3.org) (w3.org)(w3.org) (w3.org), as compliance will be required when the revised EN 301 549 standard (PDF)(etsi.org) (etsi.org)(etsi.org) (etsi.org) is published in the Official Journal of the European Union in December 2026.

Techniques

Use the built-in accessibility checker in Word

  • Under the “Tools” menu, choose “Check Accessibility”;
  • Expand any results that appear in the Accessibility panel to find out where in the file the issue is, why you should fix it, and the steps you need to take to do so.
The "Accessibility" pane with one warning - "Hard-to-read text contrast". The warning has been expanded to show the area that has an issue, and the issue has been selected. Below the issues there are two paragraphs of text, titled "Why Fix?" and "Steps To Fix".
Figure 1

Further reading