PDF Accessibility Guidelines
- What makes a PDF document accessible? Correct tagging. Tags provide a logical structure to how the content is presented through assistive technology (like a screen reader). A correctly tagged PDF is accessible to everyone.
- What is a tag? A tag is behind the scenes code that is added to PDFs to identify types of content and store some attributes related to it. Tags also arrange the document into a hierarchical structure. This adds order to the content of the PDF (like headings, paragraphs, lists, footnotes, images and tables)
- When creating a PDF from a Word document, begin by making sure the Word document is accessible.
- Save the document as a PDF.
- Open the saved PDF in Adobe Acrobat (you will need Acrobat Acrobat Pro to create accessible PDFs).
- Begin by checking the tags to ensure they align with your content. Are Heading level 1 all labeled as H1? Are paragraphs labeled as P tags? See the table of common PDF tags below.
Element Adobe PDF Tag Heading H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 Paragraph P Picture/Image Figure Table Table, TH, TR, TD List L, LI, Lbl, LBody Hyperlink Link Form Elements Form Reference Reference Footnote Note Mathematic Formula Formula - If the tags do not coincide with what was created in Word, there are 3 options you can use to correct this.
- Autotag the PDF. To do this, open the Accessibility tool and select "Autotag Document"
- Begin by checking the tags to ensure they align with your content. Are Heading level 1 all labeled as H1? Are paragraphs labeled as P tags? See the table of common PDF tags below.
