Creating Accessible PDFs

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. This format is commonly used to control the format of a document across devices. An advantage of PDF Is that they will open on a variety of devices and platforms. One disadvantage is that unless accessibility is considered on the front end, making PDFs accessible can be complex and time consuming. When PDFs are not designed to be accessible, the content may be completely unavailable to screen reader users. When creating new content, it’s important to consider whether PDF is the right format. This guidance assumes the PDF format is necessary or that PDFs already exist and need to be checked and/or remediated for accessibility.

What Makes a PDF Accessible?

Visually, a PDF must meet accessibility standards such as adequate contrast and clear, readable fonts of at least 12-point size. As with other documents, PDFs should include proper heading structure, meaningful link text, and alt textfor images. Even with these items, if a PDF is untagged, its content will not be accessible to a screen reader. Screen readers rely on the tag layer to interpret the document’s structure and content. Ensuring PDFs are generated correctly from the source will help ensure they are tagged.

Common Barriers in PDFs

Common issues that make a PDF partly or fully inaccessible include:

No tags
Images missing alt text
Missing heading structure
Incorrect reading order
Some content missing tags
Improperly tagged tables
Scanned PDFs that are an image of text
PDF forms without correct labeling

Creating an Accessible PDF From Source Document

Accessible PDFs can be created using MS Word and MS PowerPoint. Do not choose “Print to PDF”. Doing so will result in the creation of an untagged PDF. Instead, choose “Save As” and then choose PDF from the dropdown menu. On a Mac, an additional step is required. You will need to select the radio button that is labeled “Best for electronic distribution and accessibility”. Of course it is important to follow all of the guidelines for making the source document accessible before converting it to PDF.

Adobe InDesign can also be used to create an accessible PDF. (See University of Washington: Creating an Accessible PDF Using Adobe InDesign.)

Accessible PDFs can also be created from Google Documents when a file is downloaded as a PDF. However, Google Slide exports are untagged.

Exporting to PDF in other applications will have mixed results. Before deciding what application to use to create your PDF documents, make sure the output will be accessible as remediating PDFs can be time-intensive.

Working with Existing PDFs

Is the Existing PDF Accessible?

One of the challenges people face with PDFs is determining whether or not they are accessible. Below are a few starting points for checking PDF accessibility.

Is there actual text? Can you highlight text using a mouse or using Control + A (Windows) or Command + A (Mac)? If so then there is actual text. If not, then this is likely a scanned PDF where it was scanned as an image. If the scan quality is good, you may be able to use Adobe Acrobat Pro to recognize the text in the document.
Windows: Select View > Tools > Recognize Text
Mac: Select Edit > Scan and OCR > Recognize Text > In File
Is the PDF tagged? Using Adobe Acrobat Pro, select File > Document Properties. When the Document Properties dialog box opens, look toward the bottom of the box. You will see “Tagged PDF” and out to the right of that it will say either “Yes” or “No”.
Windows: Select View > Tools > Accessibility > “Add Tags To Document.”
Mac: Select All Tools > Prepare for Accessibility > Automatically Tag PDF
Are there accessibility errors? Adobe Acrobat Pro has a built-in accessibility checker. It will not find all errors but provides a sense of how accessible the document is. To run the checker, select All Tools > VIew More > Prepare for Accessibility > Check for Accessibility > Start Checking. A panel will open that shows the errors that exist in the document.

Fixing an Existing PDF

Before fixing an existing PDF, if you have access to the source document, you may be able to save time by starting with making that document fully accessible and exporting it to PDF. If you do not have access to the source document, you can either export the PDF to Microsoft Word and improve accessibility there before saving as PDF or remediate the PDF using Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Autotagging an Untagged PDF

As described above, if a PDF is not tagged, it is possible to autotag the document in Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Windows: Select View > Tools > Accessibility > “Add Tags To Document.”
Mac: Select All Tools > Prepare for Accessibility > Automatically Tag PDF

Tags will not be perfect, but it will provide a good start to creating a more accessible PDF. Once you have added tags, you can view the results in the tags panel.

To view the tags panel, select View > Show/Hide > Side Panel > Tags. This view allows you to check to see how well the tags match the content. To do this, place your focus on the first tag and use the down arrow to view the content it applies to. If there is a tag labeled “Sect” (which is short for section), you will need to open that to see the tags.

Remediating a Tagged PDF Manually

If a PDF is tagged but tags are not accurate, it is possible to fix these issues in the tag tree.