The announcement came from Shireen Salma, a product manager on Microsoft's Office Accessibility team, on the Microsoft 365 Insider Blog. She says the assistant in Word for Windows can now flag missing or improperly used headings, which improves document hierarchy and navigation for screen reader users.
What's new: three heading rules under Document Structure
Microsoft says the assistant can now suggest fixes for three patterns:
- Visually styled headings. Text that looks like a heading, often a bolded or enlarged phrase, but doesn't use a built-in style such as Heading 1 or Heading 2.
- Missing required headings. After a page or section break, if three or more paragraphs in a row have no heading, Word suggests adding one.
- Multi-line headings. If three or more consecutive paragraphs carry the same heading style, Word suggests merging them into one heading. The target is a single title that was accidentally split across paragraphs.
The thresholds matter. The multi-line rule doesn't fire just because a long heading wraps onto a second line on screen. It looks for separate paragraphs sharing one heading style, which is what happens when someone presses Enter in the middle of a title. The missing-heading rule is narrow too. It applies only after a page or section break, and only when three or more paragraphs follow with no heading.
Microsoft calls these "nudges." Word doesn't rewrite anything for you, and it doesn't check whether your outline makes sense. The author still has to decide whether three paragraphs after a section break are really a new section, or whether a bold line is a section title or just emphasis.
Summary: The assistant now spots three common heading mistakes and suggests fixes. The author still decides whether each flag is right.
Why it matters: bold text isn't structure
To a sighted reader, a bold 16-point line looks like a heading. To a screen reader, it's an ordinary paragraph. WebAIM makes the same point in its Word guidance: it is a common practice to create a "heading" by highlighting the text and applying a different font, a larger font size, bold formatting, etc. using Word's Font styles. These Font styles will provide visual headings but not the document structure needed for navigation by assistive technology users.
That's a real problem, because headings are how many screen reader users move around a long document. According to WebAIM, screen reader users can access a list of all headings in the document, jump from heading to heading, or even navigate by heading levels (e.g., all second-level headings). However, this only works if Word's Heading styles are used. The U.S. government's Section 508 training says it plainly: assistive technology cannot infer meaning from formatting characteristics alone, such as bolded or underlined text.
Microsoft also points out a side effect sighted users will recognize. Fake headings don't appear in an automatically generated table of contents or in the Navigation Pane. If your table of contents keeps skipping a section, this is probably why.
The announcement also says properly styled headings give AI systems such as Copilot structure to work with when they interpret and summarize documents. That's Microsoft's own claim, and the announcement includes no data on how much heading styles change Copilot's output.
The announcement also quotes Jeff Wissel, AIRA's VP of Accessibility. He compares reading an unstyled document with a screen reader to shopping in an unfamiliar grocery store with no aisle signs. You'll find what you need eventually, but slowly and with a lot of frustration. The quote illustrates the problem; it isn't a measured result.
Summary: Heading styles are what make a document navigable for screen readers, and they also drive the Navigation Pane and the table of contents. Formatting alone does none of that.
How this changes the older check
Until now, Word's heading checks were coarse. In 2023, BCcampus's accessibility handbook noted that the Word Accessibility Assistant will flag No headings in document if a document over 10 pages does not have any headings. The same guide warned that the Word Accessibility Assistant does not check for proper use of headings and the appearance of a single heading, regardless of document length, satisfies the checker. That guide predates this update and may not reflect every change since, but it shows the gap Microsoft is trying to close.
| Check | Older behavior described by BCcampus (2023) | New rules (Microsoft 365 Insider) |
|---|---|---|
| No headings at all | Flagged only in documents over 10 pages | Not described as changed |
| Long sections with no heading | One heading anywhere satisfied the checker | Flags 3+ paragraphs with no heading after a page or section break |
| Bold or large text posing as a heading | Not reported as a check | Flagged as "visually styled heading" |
| Heading split across paragraphs | Not reported as a check | Flags 3+ consecutive paragraphs with the same heading style |
In practice, a 9-page policy document full of bold pseudo-headings used to pass the heading check. It may now get flagged.
How to find the new checks
Steps, per Microsoft's announcement:
- Open the document in Word for Windows.
- Go to the Review tab and select Check Accessibility.
- In the Accessibility Assistant pane, choose Document Structure.
- Look for the three new rules: Missing required headings, Visually styled headings, and Use of multi-line headings.
- Work through each flag and decide whether to accept the suggestion.
Microsoft's own documentation describes the assistant as a tool that reviews your content and flags accessibility issues in your document. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade guidance explains that the Document Structure category indicates if headings and other structural elements are correctly applied.
Fixing what it finds
- Visually styled heading: If the text really is a section title, apply the right built-in style from the Home tab's Styles gallery. Keep levels in order: Heading 1, then Heading 2, then Heading 3. Microsoft's guidance says organize headings in the prescribed logical order; do not skip heading levels. If the bold text is just emphasis inside a paragraph, you can leave it alone.
- Missing required heading: Check whether the content after the break really starts a new topic. If it does, add a short, descriptive heading. Don't add filler headings just to clear the warning.
- Multi-line heading: Merge the paragraphs into one heading paragraph. If you need a visual line break inside a title, use a manual line break rather than a new paragraph.
Checking your work
The Section 508 training recommends opening the Navigation Pane and making sure the Headings tab is selected. Then verify that all of your headings appear in the navigation pane and that they match the visual outline of your document. One caveat from Microsoft's Navigation Pane documentation: headings placed in tables, text boxes, headers, or footers don't appear in the pane. Your outline can look incomplete even when those headings are styled correctly.
Summary: Go to Review, then Check Accessibility, then Document Structure. Treat each flag as a question to answer, and use the Navigation Pane to confirm the result.
Availability: who gets it, and when
- Platform: Word for Windows only, according to the announcement. Microsoft doesn't mention Word for Mac, Word for the web, or the mobile apps.
- License: A Microsoft 365 subscription.
- Build: Version 2610 (Build 20620.20002) or later.
- Rollout: Gradual. Microsoft says features on the Insider blog roll out over time while it monitors quality and performance. Some users won't see them right away, and Microsoft may pause, adjust, or remove them.
If you're on that build and don't see the new rules yet, the staged rollout is the most likely reason. A broken install is less likely. To send feedback, open Accessibility Assistant and select Give Feedback.
Analysis: a welcome check, with some things to watch
Some general observations based on how accessibility checkers tend to behave:
The good: Faking headings with bold text is probably the most common structural mistake in Word documents, and the old checker basically missed it. Flagging it at the point of authoring is far cheaper than fixing a document after a screen reader user complains, or after it fails a procurement accessibility review. There's also a self-interested reason to comply, since properly styled headings give you a working Navigation Pane and table of contents for free.
The cautions:
- False positives. The thresholds are simple counts. Legal clauses, form letters, poetry, and pages of short numbered notes can trip the missing-heading rule even when headings wouldn't help. Microsoft hasn't published accuracy or false-positive figures.
- Heading overload. If authors add a heading every time the tool asks, documents could end up with too many headings, which also makes navigation worse.
- No hierarchy judgment. The rules check whether something is styled as a heading. They don't check whether it's the right level or whether the outline is logical.
- Templates. Organizations whose corporate templates rely on custom bold "heading" formats, rather than built-in heading styles, may see a lot of flags. The fix belongs in the template, not in thousands of individual documents.
For IT admins and document-governance teams, the practical step is to check your organization's Word templates against the new rules before users start reporting a flood of flags.
The bottom line
Microsoft's three new rules give Word's Accessibility Assistant a real way to catch fake headings, long unheaded sections, and split titles in Word for Windows. The feature needs a Microsoft 365 subscription and Version 2610 (Build 20620.20002) or later, and it's arriving gradually. The tool makes suggestions and doesn't enforce anything, so authors still have to judge each flag. Even so, it should mean fewer documents that look organized on screen but are hard to navigate with a screen reader.