Word Headings and the “Clickable Table of Contents”

Updated July 18, 2023

Word Accessibility Tips

This blog article is the first in a series of articles which will explain how different tools in Word can be used to both enhance the accessibility of a document and allow editors to create more consistently formatted documents. The series will cover heading styles, table formatting and how to leverage other formatting tools in Word.

The first topic is how using Word Heading styles allow users with visual loss to scan documents in the same ways a sighted user can via the use of visual formatting changes. What people may not realize is that sighted users can also create a clickable table of contents using the same heading styles.

Table of Contents

Headings and Screen Readers

Inserting “Semantic headings” into documents is one of the most important accessibility guidelines for those who use screen reader software applications. Yet it’s one of the guidelines that is hard for many sighted users to conceptualize. Semantic headings create a “clickable table of contents” for a document which can be extracted in a screen reader. The image below shows a set of headings within a Word document about the mountain laurel (the state flower of Pennsylvania).

Word file with a the Voiceover rotor showing a list of headings in a document about mountain laurels. Headings include Description, Scientific Classification and Map.
Examples of how formatting changes are used to indicate topic changes or sections within a document.

Visual Headings and Their Shortcomings

Sighted users do instinctively understand the need to add headings – many long documents are filled with chunks of differently formatted text which indicate a new topic. Formatting options include larger text, bold, italic or underlined text, different colors, different fonts or a combination of any of these. These are called “visual headings” and are used by sighted readers to help understand the organization of a document and allows them to quickly skip to different parts of a document.

Text with the word Description in large bold text and the sub heading Scientific Classification in medium bold text.   Text with the word Description in large bold text with a line below and the sub heading Scientific Classification in bold text in a variant font.   Text with the word Description in large purple small caps text and the sub heading Scientific Classification in bold, italics text.
List of headings in a Word file as shown on the Mac Voiceover screenreader.

Unfortunately, screen readers do not recognize these visual changes as “headings” unless they are linked to semantic heading styles (Word) or tags (HTML/PDF). This means that headings in Word (or Open Office) should be tagged as one of the Heading 1 – Heading 6 styles or an H1-H6 tag on an HTML Web page or PDF file. Without these semantic headings, the screen reader experience is like scanning through a long piece of unformatted text – a daunting task for most of us.

All text including the headings Description and Scientific Classification are in the same font and size.
When styles are not used, this is what a screen reader user experiences.

How to Add Semantic Headings in Word

The easiest way to add headings is through the Word Styles menu. Almost all Word files include the styles Heading 1-Heading 6 by default, and for most of us, they are also colored blue. The styles are found above the document, but a more detailed list of styles can be activated on the right.

Document with heading 1 Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia): Pennsylvania's State Flower. Styles panel with Heading 1 listed on top.
A document about mountain laurels with the title in the blue Heading 1 style.

If you are not a fan of blue headings, don’t worry – the styles can be formatted in other ways. See the example files below for a demo. In the next few posts, you can see how you can use the Styles editor to change their default appearance – or you can look ahead in the Word Style tutorials on the Penn State Linked In Learning service or on the Microsoft support site.

Heading Level Designation

For the record, the heading usage is as follows:

  • Heading 1 – Document Title
  • Heading 2 – Main Topic
  • Headings 3-6 – Nested Subtopic levels

Note: Word also includes Headings 7-9, but there may not be usable on all platforms. WebAIM recommends not using these levels.

The Headings and the “Headings Map”

How do you know a visual heading is also a semantic heading? One way to check is view the Word “Headings.” This is a list of nested headings in the document. To access your Document Map as follows.

  1. Click the View tab in the top ribbon.
  2. Check the option for Navigation Pane. A vertical window opens on the left.
  3. In the top of the Navigation Pane, click either Headings (Windows) or Document Map (Mac).
    Note:
    If the Headings or Document Map is pane is blank, that means there are no semantic headings in the document. But once you begin adding headings, the Document Map populates itself automatically.
Headings tab with an outline for a document about mountain laurels with the title Mountain Laurel on top and multiple subtopics below. Mac version with the mountain laurel outline under a Document Map icon in the center.
The Headings (Windows) or Document Map (Mac) shows the Heading 1 title on top followed by a multilevel outline.

Download Sample Word Mountain Laurel Documents

You can download the sample documents to see how headings have been implemented. The first document uses a variation of the default Microsoft template. The second uses a modified template with black headings in a larger size.

Mountain Laurel Article Word File

Navigation Pane in Word Online (Added June 14, 2023)

The instructions above assume you are using the Desktop version of Microsoft Word. If you are viewing the document online through a web browser such as Google Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge, you can still access the Document Map, but the interface is a little different.

  1. Click the View tab.
  2. Select Navigation. A panel opens on the left.
  3. Select Headings to view the Document Map.

Headings and Generating a Table of Contents

Another way to leverage styles and create a table of contents is to generate a table of contents based on styles. Microsoft and other sites have excellent documentation on how to create and update this table of contents.

References

Penn State Accessibility – Headings
https://accessibility.psu.edu/headings/
Retrieved May 31, 2023

WebAIM – Microsoft Word – Creating Accessible Documents
https://webaim.org/techniques/word/
Retrieved May 31, 2023

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Last Update: July 18, 2023