Floating images now accessible for screen readers in Word

Hello, Insiders! I’m Shireen Salma, Product Manager on the Office Accessibility team. I’m excited to announce that floating images in Microsoft Word for Windows are now accessible to screen readers. Thanks to new enhancements in how images are connected or anchored to surrounding text, screen readers can now detect and navigate floating images effectively.

Floating images now accessible for screen readers in Word

Previously, floating images in Word were flagged by Accessibility Assistant as inaccessible because screen readers couldn’t determine their position in the document. Without an anchor linking the image to a specific location in the text, floating images were essentially “invisible” to screen readers.

Now, improved anchoring ensures screen reader can detect floating images and announce their alt text where the anchor is placed relative to the surrounding text. This improvement removes the need for the previous rule requiring images to be “In Line with Text” for accessibility.

You now have the option to anchor a floating image either:

• to a fixed position on the page, such as for logos or watermarks; or
• to a specific paragraph, so the image moves with the related text.

This approach ensures a meaningful connection between visual content and its associated text. As the text shifts, the image moves with it, preserving its logical placement within the document structure.

Now, when navigating through a document, screen readers announce a floating image at its anchor position in the document, as well as its alt text and whether it’s floating or positioned. To place focus on an image using your keyboard, press Ctrl + Alt + G, then tab to move from image to image. You can also access a list of all images in the document through Elements List or Object Navigation (available in JAWS and NVDA), which include each image’s alt text and its anchoring reference.

Thanks to these improvements, you can confidently interact with floating images while using a screen reader, knowing their exact location and context within the document.

How it works

1. Open a Word document with a floating image on your Windows device.
2. Select Review > Check Accessibility to open Accessibility Assistant, and notice that the Accessibility Assistant no longer flags any violation for images not placed In Line with Text.

NOTE: Accessibility Assistant will still warn you if the image has no alt text.

Tips and tricks

• To change the anchor of a floating image, select the anchor icon to the left of the document and drag it to your preferred location.

Availability

This change is available to Word for Windows users running Version 2411 (Build 18227.20000) or later.

Feedback

We’d love to hear your thoughts on how this update is working! In Word, select Help > Feedback to provide feedback.

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