Creating Accessible lists

Target Audience: Chaffey College Faculty, Staff, & Student (Beginner Level)

Software: Microsoft Word 365 (Enterprise)

Goal: Ensure lists are correctly formatted so assistive technology can count the items.

The Concept: If you manually type a dash (-) and hit space, you are visually making a list, but the computer doesn't know it's a list. It just thinks you are typing sentences with weird punctuation. We need to use the official "List Buttons" so the computer says "Item 1, Item 2, Item 3" to a blind student.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Type your items first.
   • Don't worry about numbers or dots yet. Just type your list items, pressing Enter after each one.
   • Example: Apples Bananas Oranges
2. Highlight the list.
   • Use your mouse to click and drag from the start of "Apples" down to the end of "Oranges." All items should be highlighted in gray.
3. Locate the "Home" Tab.
   • Look at the very top of the Word window. Ensure you have clicked the tab labeled Home (it is usually the first one on the left).
4. Find the List Buttons.
   • Look in the middle of the ribbon toolbar for the section called Paragraph.
   • You will see three small icons near the top of that section:
     • Bullets: Three small dots with lines (Use this for a standard list).
     • Numbering: The numbers "1, 2, 3" with lines (Use this if the order matters).
5. Click the Button.
   • Click the Bullets icon once.
6. Verification
   • You will see the text jump slightly to the right, and black dots will appear next to each word.
   • Troubleshooting: If you add a new item to the list by pressing Enter, a new bullet should appear automatically. This proves it is working.