Accessibility: Investigate
What “Accessibility: Investigate” means in Office’s status bar, why some files can’t be checked, and what the checker doesn’t check. How to fix each issue.
Last updated
This message comes from the Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker.
Accessibility: Investigate appears in the status bar at the bottom of Word, PowerPoint and Excel when Microsoft's Accessibility Checker, running in the background, has found something in your file to look at. Select it to open the checker's results, which list each issue and how to fix it. When nothing is left to flag, the status changes; some versions show "Accessibility: Good to go".
What this means
The status bar shows a result only when the option Keep accessibility checker running while I work is turned on. You'll find it in the Accessibility pane. The checker then runs as you edit, and Microsoft sorts what it finds into four groups under Inspection Results:
- Errors: content that makes a document difficult or impossible for people with disabilities to read and understand, such as pictures with no alt text, tables with no header information and slides with no title.
- Warnings: content that causes problems in most cases, such as hard-to-read text contrast, tables with a complicated structure, slides whose reading order may not be logical, and video without captions.
- Tips: content that could be presented better, such as slides that share the same title, or a Word document that doesn't use heading styles.
- Intelligent Services: content Office made accessible automatically, such as suggested alt text, which you should review.
"Investigate" means at least one item is waiting for you. In current versions of Word for Windows, Check Accessibility opens the Accessibility Assistant instead, which groups issues by type: Color and Contrast, Media and Illustrations, Tables, Document Structure and Document Access. Labels and layouts vary between versions and platforms, so what you see may not match this page exactly.
Is there a "Not checked" status?
Microsoft doesn't document a "Not checked" status. People who search for "accessibility checker not checked" usually mean one of two things: the checker shows nothing or won't run, or they want to know what it doesn't check. Both are covered here.
When the checker shows nothing or won't run:
- Background checking is off. Turn on Keep accessibility checker running while I work in the Accessibility pane, or run the checker yourself from Review > Check Accessibility.
- The file is in an older format. Files saved as .doc, .ppt or .xls open in Compatibility Mode, where some features aren't available. Save the file in the current format (.docx, .pptx or .xlsx) with File > Info > Convert or Save As, then run the checker again.
- Editing is turned off. In Protected View or a read-only copy, select Enable Editing first.
- The version is older. On older Windows versions, the checker is under File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility.
- You're in Office for the web. Use Review > Check Accessibility, and select Recheck after you make changes.
What the checker doesn't check: a clean result means no rule was triggered, not that the file is accessible. Microsoft says there are some issues the checker isn't able to detect, and that you should always review your work visually. It can't detect information shown only by color, and it can't judge whether alt text is accurate, whether captions are correct, or whether headings and slide titles describe their content. Its rules don't cover text size or lists typed by hand without list formatting. In PowerPoint, the contrast check skips some objects, such as transparent text boxes and placeholders. And it says nothing about the PDF you export. Our guide to what the Microsoft Accessibility Checker doesn't check covers each gap.
Why it matters
Problems in a Word file or slide deck carry into every PDF exported from it. Fixing them in the source is the cheapest fix there is, and it lasts. The issues the checker flags most clearly affect screen reader users, through alt text, headings, slide titles and table headers, and people with low vision, through contrast.
How to fix it in Word, PowerPoint and Excel
- Select Accessibility: Investigate in the status bar, or choose Review > Check Accessibility. The checker's results open in a pane.
- Work through Errors first, then Warnings, then Tips. In Word's Accessibility Assistant, work through each category instead. Select an item to jump to it in the file.
- Open the arrow next to the item to see Recommended Actions, such as adding a description, marking a picture as decorative or adding a slide title, and choose one.
- Repeat until no errors or warnings are left.
- Then do the checks the tool can't: read your alt text aloud, check the reading order of each slide (on Windows, Review > Check Accessibility > Reading Order Pane), and look for anything shown only by color.
Where to start in each app:
| App | Fix first |
|---|---|
| Word | Heading styles, alt text, a header row on every data table, clear link text |
| PowerPoint | A unique title on every slide, reading order, alt text, captions on video |
| Excel | Descriptive sheet names, header rows, alt text on charts, no red-only negative numbers |
In PowerPoint, a slide that shouldn't show a title still needs one. Add a hidden title from the Accessibility ribbon (Slide Title > Add Hidden Slide Title), or drag the title placeholder off the slide.
Fix it in the source file
The Word, PowerPoint or Excel file is the source, so the fixes above are the source fix. Export carefully to carry them into PDF:
- Word for Windows: choose File > Save a Copy (or Save As), pick PDF, then open Options. Keep Document structure tags for accessibility turned on, and choose Create bookmarks using: Headings.
- PowerPoint for Windows: choose File > Export > Create PDF/XPS Document, then Options before you publish.
- Mac: when saving as PDF, choose the option for electronic distribution and accessibility.
- Never print to PDF. It strips out the tags, the hidden structure that tells screen readers what each part of the document is.
Then check the PDF itself, because an exported PDF can still fail checks that Office doesn't run.
Fix it automatically with Includoc
Upload a Word or PowerPoint file and Includoc checks it and fixes what can be fixed in the file. We mark table header rows automatically. Our AI writes alt text for pictures, applies heading styles to text that looks like a heading, and adds missing slide titles, which can sit just off the slide if you don't want them visible. You confirm each of these before anything is final. You get back the fixed file and a tagged PDF export.
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Standards
| Standard or tool | Reference |
|---|---|
| WCAG 2.1 |
| Standard or tool | Reference |
|---|---|
| WCAG 2.1 |
| Standard or tool | Reference |
|---|---|
| WCAG 2.1 |
| Standard or tool | Reference |
|---|---|
| WCAG 2.1 |
Related errors
- Alt text pane missing in Word, Excel or PowerPoint: how to find the Alt Text pane in every version.
- Appropriate nesting – Failed: heading levels, which start in Word.
For app-by-app detail, see the PowerPoint accessibility checker and Word accessibility checker guides, or check a file free.
Related
- Alt text pane missing in Word, Excel or PowerPoint
Can’t find the Alt Text pane in Word, Excel or PowerPoint? Where it is in each version, how to mark images decorative, and why it sometimes won’t open.
- Appropriate nesting – Failed
Acrobat’s “Appropriate nesting – Failed” means heading levels are out of order, often a skipped level. How heading outlines work and how to fix them.
- What the Microsoft Accessibility Checker doesn't check
Microsoft's Accessibility Checker finds missing alt text, titles and table headers, but not whether content makes sense. What it skips and how to check it.