Creating Accessible PDF Documents - Home | UMass Amherst

?Creating Accessible PDF DocumentsPDF files are created in various programs (Word, Excel, InDesign, etc.) and the best way to create an accessible PDF is to make the document accessibly from the beginning in the original application. However, Adobe Acrobat Pro allows us to evaluate, repair, and enhance the accessibility of existing PDF files and can be a great tool to learn what steps were missing when the initial document was created.Make Accessible Wizard in Acrobat XIAdobe Acrobat Pro XI comes with a great automated, multistep tool that will walk users through the process of creating accessible PDFs. In the Tools sidebar on the right of the page choose Action Wizard > Make Accessible.Once the wizard is complete, you should be able to run the built-in Accessibility Full Check to verify that the document is accessible. See Run Accessibility Full Check at the end of this document.Note: Tools submenu items may not be open by default; to open them, navigate to View > Tools and select your desired tool.If you are on an older version of Acrobat, below are the steps that the Action Wizard will go through.Add Document DescriptionOpen the PDF and navigate to File > Properties. The default Description Properties tab should open and you can add a title, author, subject, and keywords. Only the Title field is required for accessibility. Set Open OptionsFile > Properties > Initial ViewRecognize Text/Convert Scanned TextPDFs must contain real text and cannot contain images of text. The best way to ensure real text is to create the document in another program and save it as a PDF with the text intact. Alternatively, you can attempt to let Acrobat Pro convert images of text into real text with the Recognize Text tool. In the Tools menu pane on the right of the document, choose Recognize Text to automatically convert images of text into real text. Once it has finished, use the Find All Suspects in the Recognize Text menu found in the right sidebar.Detect Form FieldsIf your document contains form fields you can have Acrobat recognize the form fields for you to make them fillable and accessible. In the Tools sidebar, on the right, go to Accessibility and choose Run Form Field Recognition to turn text into fillable form fields that are accessible.Sometimes the tool doesn’t recognize every field, so you may have to add form fields in the right Tools sidebar under Forms > Create and then add new form fields. Set Tab Order PropertyTo reflow or reorder the way a document is read by screen readers and tabbed through by users, select View > Zoom > Reflow or Control + 4. You can drag and drop to reorder the flow of the document.Set Reading LanguageGo to File > Properties > Advanced Tab and choose the language drop-down at the bottom of the Reading Options section.Add Tags to Document with the Tags PaneView > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > TagsUse the Tags Pane to view, reorder, rename, modify, delete, and create tags. You can use the Options menu and select Highlight Content to allow you to see which tags are selected with your mouse.Add Tags to an Untagged DocumentGo to Tools on the right sidebar menu and choose Accessibility > Add Tags to Document.Set Alternative TextUse the TouchUp Reading Order tool to add alt text to images. Right click on the image and select Edit Alternate Text.Set Alternate Text is a new tool available in Acrobat XI. This tool speeds up the process by allowing a user to add alt text to all images in the document at once. In the Accessibility sidebar, select Set Alternate Text. A pop-up box will appear allowing you to add alt text, it also includes a check box to mark the image as a Decorative Figure, which is an image that provides no additional information and can be safely disregarded by screen readers.Run Accessibility Full CheckFrom the right Tools sidebar, choose Accessibility and click Full Check. Set the save location of the report or leave it default. Set Page Range to All pages in document and make sure all of the check boxes are checked and click Start Checking. This will run you through an automated report and will display an Accessibility navigation pane on the left side of the document that lists any issues found within.You can right-click any failed items and attempt to fix them. Hopefully, running through all of the previous criteria will resolve most or all accessibility issues. After fixing the items, run the Full Check again to ensure that the document is fully accessible. If it is fully accessible, you should see a message pop up indicating that there were no issues found in the document. ................
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