Using native Microsoft Office tools to foster inclusion

Sometimes, making your organisation more inclusive is about the small, practical steps.

Here are 2 simple IT improvements you can implement today.

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Make your documents more inclusive

What if all your job ads, policies, press releases, and emails were proofread for inclusiveness?

Well, Microsoft Word and Outlook have a native functionality for that.

 It allows you to check for:

• Age bias
• Cultural bias
• Ethnic slurs
• Gender bias
• Gender-neutral pronouns
• Gender-specific language
• Racial bias
• Sexual orientation bias
• Socioeconomic bias

Here is how to set it up:

In Word:

1. In MS Word, go to File > Options > Proofing;
2. In the section called ‘when correcting spelling and grammar in Word’, tick the ‘Check grammar with spelling’ box;
3. Click on Settings, scroll down to the Inclusiveness section, and tick the various options.

In Outlook:

1. Go to File > Options > Mail;
2. Tick the ‘Always check spelling before sending’ box;
3. Click on ‘Spelling and Autocorrect;
4. In the section called ‘when correcting spelling in Outlook’, tick the ‘Check grammar with spelling’ box;
5. Click on Settings, scroll down to the Inclusiveness section, and tick the various options.

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Make your documents more accessible

Now that you have taken care of your documents’ contents, let’s ensure that their format is accessible to individuals who have cognitive, visual or auditory disabilities.

The MS Accessibility Checker looks for accessibility issues in most Office apps (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, OneNote, Visio).

It reviews

• Document structure and navigation (headings, reading order etc)
• Keyboard-only accessibility
• Colour contrast between text and background
• Alternative text for images
• Descriptive text for hyperlinks
• Captions or transcripts for multimedia
• Tables and forms structure

As well as highlighting the issues, the Accessibility Assistant ranks them (from errors that must be addressed, to tips on best practice), and suggests ways to fix them.

In Word, Excel and Powerpoint, this functionality is available in the Review menu or File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility. You can also receive real-time suggestions by ticking the relevant boxes in File > Options > Accessibility.

In Outlook, OneNote and Visio, depending on versions, the Check accessibility function is available under Options, View or Review.

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A couple of caveats

The MS Office functionalities are constantly evolving. At the point of writing, Inclusiveness Proofing is not available in Excel or Powerpoint. Also, the items checked depend on the version of Office you are using, 365 being the most comprehensive.

And, to my knowledge, there is no native Apple equivalent of the inclusiveness proofing tool and the accessibility checker in iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote). I’d love to hear what EDI practitioners using Mac recommend.

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Establish the use of these tools as standard policy

You now know how to make you business communications more inclusive (contents) and more accessible (format) with minimal effort.

But these tools are only helpful if they are used throughout your organisation.

Make it policy.