PDF Accessibility Guidelines
Link List
PDF stands for "Portable Document Format." Sharing digital content as a PDF is a for those who do not have access to Microsoft products to view documents. PDFs can be known to be more secure and less likely to be tampered with when shared digitally. Creating accessible PDFs does require some level of knowledge of digital accessibility, tagging structure and editing in Adobe. By following the guidance on this page, creating an accessible PDF is achievable by everyone.
*This section on creating accessible PDFs is continually being updated and worked on. Please use this section, and the BuckeyeLearn Courses listed below, to create wonderfully accessible PDFs.
BuckeyeLearn Courses (For OSU Employees):
- Document Accessibility: PDF
- Document Accessibility: Advanced PDF (pre-requisites for this are Word and PDF Accessibility courses)
Useful information:
- DeQue Quick Reference Guide: Basic PDF Accessibility
- Adobe's documentation on PDF accessibility and using Acrobat's accessibility tools
When creating a PDF from Word, consider sharing a protected document rather than converting to PDF. It's easy to do and offers fidelity while leveraging all of the accessibility features you may have already built into your document (see our guide on this website). For help protecting your document, see this guide from Microsoft:
PDF Accessibility
- An accessible PDF is a document that can be accurately navigated and read by a screen reader.
- 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).
- For a PDF to be considered accessible it must have proper tags.
To create and edit accessible PDFs you will need Adobe Acrobat Pro from the Adobe Creative Suit. There are built in accessibility tools that can be added to your toolbar to make editing easier. Recommended tools are the Action Wizard, Accessibility and Prepare Form toolbars.
To add these tools:
- Open Adobe Acrobat Pro
- On the far righthand side click on "More Tools"
- Each tool can be found in a category:
- Forms & Signatures has Prepare Form
- Protect & Standardize has Accessibility
- Customize has the Action Wizard
- Once the tool is located, click "Add." This will create a shortcut to the tool in your toolbar.
- 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).
- Set the document title and language. To do this:
- File > Properties > Description tab and add a concise title > switch to the Advanced tab and set the Language under "Reading Options" > select "OK" to save the changes.
- File > Properties > Description tab and add a concise title > switch to the Advanced tab and set the Language under "Reading Options" > select "OK" to save the changes.
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Tagging a PDF
- Begin by checking the tags to ensure they align with your content. The Tag panel will be on the lefthand side of the screen and the tool looks like a little price tag.
- 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."
- Use the Action Wizard Accessibility Wizard. To do this, open the Action Wizard tool and select "Make Accessible." There are several prompts to follow for this tool; be sure to complete them all.
- Manually tag the PDF. This is the most time consuming, but most accurate, way of creating an accessible PDF.
- Begin by checking the tags to ensure they align with your content. The Tag panel will be on the lefthand side of the screen and the tool looks like a little price tag.
As with any other digital resource, alt text needs to be added to any non-text elements that add to the content or context of the resource. To find more information about alt text (what it is, why it is necessary, how to create good alt text, etc) please look at the Alternative (Alt) Text Guide.
There are a few ways to add alt text to a PDF in Adobe Acrobat.
- When using the Accessibility Wizard, one of the steps it takes is finding any images/non-text elements in the PDF. The Wizard then prompts you to add alt-text or mark the image as decorative.
- Manually add alt text through the "Properties" menu. To do this:
- Go to the Tags Menu.
- Find the figure you want to tag and expand the tag to show the image property.
- Right click on the image tag and select "Properties." A dialog box will open that allows you to add Alt Text, image title and more.
- Running the accessibility checker and correcting any alt text errors.
- If an alt text error is detected, expand the Alternate Text element and locate the list of figure element(s) that failed.
- Right click on each individual element and select "fix."
- This will open the alt text dialog box where you can enter alt text or mark the image as decorative.
- If an alt text error is detected, expand the Alternate Text element and locate the list of figure element(s) that failed.
When creating an accessible PDF form from a Word document, begin by saving the Word document as a PDF. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat, go to Tools > Accessibility > Run Form Field Recognition to detect form fields and make them interactive (fillable).
Forms can also be created directly in Adobe Acrobat. Here is a step-by-step guide from Acrobat on creating forms from scratch in the tool.
A good guideline to follow when creating accessible PDFs is running the Accessibility Check that can be found in Adobe Acrobat. Running this check prior to beginning any work on the PDF can assist in finding easy to correct errors before any auto-tagging or manual tagging is done. Once remediations to the PDF have been completed, run the Accessibility Check again.
One of the best ways to test your PDF's accessibility for the visually impaired is to have it read to you. While most creators won't have a screen reader installed, Adobe Acrobat Reader has a built in ability to "Read Out Loud". This is available in the desktop, mobile, and webapp versions of Adobe Reader, but not in opening a PDF directly with the web browser.
Instructions on how to have your PDF Read Out Loud on the Adobe Desktop.
Use of "Read Out Loud" to test your PDF will help you find and correct potential issues with common accessibility concerns like image alt-text and reading order.
Reading order is a tricky thing in PDF files, especially ones that come from design software like InDesign. If you find that there are problems with the reading order of your PDF, Acrobat provides a tool within Acrobat Pro for adjusting reading order.
Help on using the Adobe Acrobat Reading Order tool.
LaTeX is a powerful document preparation markup language used to generate formatted text for print and distribution, primarily as PDF. It is especially remarkable for its capability to build and display math formulae inline, which has led to it being very popular in the sciences and engineering. It uses a compiler like OverLeaf to process supplied markup into typesetting.
For all of these strengths however, LaTeX is not capable of consistently producing accessible PDFs or other document types, especially when math formulae are involved. There are some attempts at libraries and plugins to solve this limitation, but in testing these ETS found that none were able to consistently and dependably generate a document in any format that met WCAG standards.
What this means is that a document generated out of a LaTeX processor should never be used directly and will require manual remediation as outlined elsewhere on this page or using a consultant. Since LaTeX documents can be extensive, extra time for this work should be taken into account for any delivery dates. Special consideration should be taken for any included graphics and math formulae.
Overleaf has an excellent and comprehensive document outlining the concepts and good practices for using its service to generate PDFs with accessibility in mind, and what extra steps will be needed. It is an extensive document, but we recommend studying it if you plan on using LaTeX
Relevant Links:
- Overleaf - An introduction to tagged PDF files: internals and the challenges of accessibility
- What’s the Difference Between WCAG, Sec. 508, and PDF/UA standards? - Since Overleaf's guide focuses on PDF/A, it is important to understand the differences between it and WCAG, which is the University standard.
- Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility - Real world experience from someone in academia trying to create accessible PDFs from LaTeX, and the challenges involved.
This section contain materials that are considered advanced for PDF Accessibility. Anyone is welcome to read over them and learn!
- Glossary of Accessibility Terminology from PDFA
- WCAG 2.0 PDF specification - The university requires AA compliance
- What’s the Difference Between WCAG, Sec. 508, and PDF/UA standards? - This article outlines the similarities and differences between different standards for PDF accessibility.
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