Customize the Accessibility Checker for Office 2013

Article
12/26/2016

Applies to: Excel 2013, Office 2013, Office 365 ProPlus, PowerPoint 2013, Word 2013

Summary: Use Group Policy settings to control what the Accessibility Checker checks when users run it on Office 2013 files.

The Accessibility Checker in Office 2013 lets users create more accessible documents for people who have disabilities. The Accessibility Checker (like a spelling checker, but for accessibility issues) is a core feature of Excel 2013, PowerPoint 2013, and Word 2013.

Audience: IT Professionals

Important

Are you looking for help with using the Accessibility Checker? You may be looking for Check for accessibility issues, or Rules used by the Accessibility Checker, which will help you use the Accessibility Checker and understand its rules.

In this article:

Increase the visibility of violations
Control what the checker reports

Increase the visibility of violations

The settings that are provided in Control what the checker reports later in this article are used to control the Accessibility Checker. Of these settings, most are about stopping the Accessibility Checker from performing a particular check.

The policy setting Increase the visibility of Accessibility Checker violations controls how strongly an accessibility error will be emphasized in the user interface. If enabled, you can specify what happens when a document, workbook, or spreadsheet has accessibility errors, as shown here:

Accessibility violations do not change the Prepare for Distribution area in the Office Backstage view (default).
Accessibility errors cause the Prepare for Distribution area to be strongly emphasized in the Backstage view.
Accessibility errors or warnings cause the Prepare for Distribution area to be less strongly emphasized in the Backstage view.

If disabled or not configured, the Accessibility Checker user interface is presented in its normal state.

Important

Group Policy settings can be used to control the Accessibility Checker. For Excel 2013, PowerPoint 2013, and Word 2013, the Group Policy settings are located in the gpedit node <AppName>\File tab\Check Accessibility.

Control what the checker reports

The following tables provide the complete Group Policy settings that can be used to control the Accessibility Checker for Excel 2013, PowerPoint 2013, and Word 2013.

Group Policy settings for Excel 2013

Setting for Excel 2013	Associated registry key	Description
Stop checking for alt text accessibility information	AltText	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether objects such as images and shapes contain alternative text. If disabled or not configured, objects are checked for alternative text and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking for table header accessibility information	TableHeaders	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether tables have a header row specified. If disabled or not configured, tables are checked for header rows and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to ensure workbooks allow programmatic access	ProgrammaticAccess	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether workbooks have blocked programmatic access through Digital Rights Management (DRM). If disabled or not configured, workbooks are checked for programmatic access and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking for merged cells	MergedCells	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether tables have merged cells. If disabled or not configured, worksheets are checked for merged cells and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to ensure hyperlink text is meaningful	MeaningfulHyperlinks	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether hyperlinks have meaningful text. If disabled or not configured, hyperlink text is checked and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to ensure non-default sheet names	SheetNames	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether worksheets with content have non-default names. If disabled or not configured, worksheet names are checked and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking for blank table rows used as formatting	BlankTableRows	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether blank table rows are used as formatting. If disabled or not configured, tables are checked for blank rows and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.

Group Policy settings for PowerPoint 2013

Setting for PowerPoint 2013	Associated registry key	Description
Stop checking for alt text accessibility information	AltText	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether objects such as images and shapes contain alt text. If disabled or not configured, objects are checked for alternative text and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to ensure hyperlink text is meaningful	HyperlinkText	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether hyperlinks have meaningful text. If disabled or not configured, hyperlink text is checked and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking for media files which might need captions	ClosedCaptions	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not flag media files that might need caption information. If disabled or not configured, presentations are scanned for media files and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking for table header accessibility information	HeaderRow	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether tables have a header row specified. If disabled or not configured, tables are checked for header rows and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking for blank table rows and columns	BlankRowCol	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether blank rows and blank columns were inserted into tables. If disabled or not configured, tables are checked for blank rows and blank columns and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking for merged and split cells	SimpleStructure	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether tables have merged or split cells. If disabled or not configured, tables are checked for merged and split cells and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking that slide titles exist	HasTitle	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether every slide has a title placeholder. If disabled or not configured, slides are checked for titles and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to make sure that each slide has a unique title	UniqueTitle	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether every slide has a unique title. If disabled or not configured, slide titles are checked for uniqueness and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to ensure a meaningful order of objects on slides	NonPlaceholderShapes	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether a slide has non-placeholder objects which might be read back out of order. If disabled or not configured, slides are checked for objects which might be read back out of order and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to ensure presentations allow programmatic access	IRM	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether presentations have blocked programmatic access through DRM. If disabled or not configured, presentations are checked for programmatic access and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.

Group Policy settings for Word 2013

Setting for Word 2013	Associated registry key	Description
Stop checking for alt text accessibility information	AltText	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether objects such as images and shapes contain alt text. If disabled or not configured, objects are checked for alternative text and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to ensure hyperlink text is meaningful	MeaningfulHyperlinks	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether hyperlinks have meaningful text. If disabled or not configured, hyperlink text is checked and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking for table header accessibility information	TableHeaders	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether tables have a header row specified. If disabled or not configured, tables are checked for header rows and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking for blank table rows and columns	BlankTableCells	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether blank rows and blank columns were inserted into tables. If disabled or not configured, tables are checked for blank rows and blank columns and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking for merged and split cells	2DTableStructure	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not determine whether tables have merged or split cells. If disabled or not configured, tables are checked for merged and split cells and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to ensure documents allow programmatic access	ProgrammaticAccess	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether documents have blocked programmatic access through DRM. If disabled or not configured, documents are checked for programmatic access and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to ensure long documents use styles for structure	StylesAsStructure	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether long documents have used styles to define content structure. If disabled or not configured, documents are checked for style usage and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to ensure styles have been used frequently	HeadingSpacing	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether documents that use styles have used them frequently enough to accurately represent the document's content structure. If disabled or not configured, the frequency of style usage is checked and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to ensure headings are succinct	SuccinctHeadings	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether headings in a document are succinct. If disabled or not configured, document headings are checked for length and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking whether objects are floating	FloatingObjects	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether a document has objects that are floating instead of inline. If disabled or not configured, objects are checked for floating text wrapping properties and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking whether blank characters are used for formatting	BlankCharacters	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether multiple consecutive white-space characters are used for formatting. If disabled or not configured, documents are checked for consecutive white-space usage and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking for image watermarks	ImageWatermarks	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether a document has image watermarks. If disabled or not configured, documents are checked for watermarks and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking to ensure heading styles do not skip style level	HeadingOrder	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not check whether headings in a document are used in order. If disabled or not configured, the ordering of headings in a document is checked and any issues that it finds will appear in the Accessibility Checker.
Stop checking for tables used for layout	LayoutTablesReadingOrder	If enabled, the Accessibility Checker does not flag layout tables (that is, tables that have no style applied). If disabled or not configured, tables that have no styles are flagged and violations appear in the Accessibility Checker.

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