Accessibility Best Practices: Adobe PDF

• Add tags icon to Navigation Pane

1. Click triangle icon on left of window to display Navigation Pane
2. Right click on the opened pane and select "Accessibility tags" from the submenu 
3. The tags icon will now appear in the pane
4. With the tags icon active, navigate the tag options menu, ensure "Highlight Content" is checked

• Add tool shortcuts to Tools Menu

1. Select "Tools" from the top of the document
2. Locate the "Accessibility", "Print Production" and "Scan & OCR" tools from the tools screen 
3. Choose "Add" for each
4. Click the triangle on the right of the window
5. Each shortcut will now appear in the Tools Pane on the right of the screen

1. Identify document as a scan
   • Individual text cannot be selected on a page
   • Result, "Image-only PDF - Failed" from Accessibility Check 
2. Apply Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
   1. Select "Scan & OCR" icon from Tools menu
   2. Choose "Recognize Text", "In This File"
   3. Adjust "Pages", "Language", and "Settings" as needed
   4. Select "Recognize Text" again
3. Review recognized text
   1. Choose "Recognize Text", "Correct Recognized Text"
   2. Check "Review recognized text"
   3. Update "recognized as" text as needed to match the text in the "image" and click "Accept" to move to the next
   4. Repeat for rest of document.
   5. Click "OK" when "All suspects in the document have been corrected"
4. Add tags to document
   1. See "Add Tags to Document" below

• Auto tag (least preferred)
  1. Click "Accessibility" in the Tools Pane 
  2. Select "Autotag Document" 
  3. Click tags icon in the Navigation Pane to display the tags tree
• Manual tag
  1. Click "Accessibility" in the Tools Pane
  2. Click "Reading Order" to open reading order tool
  3. Select content settings "Structure types" and uncheck "Display like elements in a single block"
  4. With the reading order tool open, work from the top of the document in a logical order, use crosshairs to lasso content
  5. Select appropriate choice in the reading order tool to describe the selected content area
  6. Repeat for each block of content
• Create a tag from selection
  1. Highlight a tag in tag tree, under which you want a new tag to appear
  2. Go to tag options (or right click highlighted tag)
  3. Select "New Tag"
  4. Select tag type from dropdown list
  5. Select the newly created tag
  6. Use the selection tool to highlight text in the document to be tagged
  7. Right click selected tag, select "Create Tag from Selection"
• Convert from an accessible word document (preferred)
  1. In Word, with accessible document open go to "File" and "Save as PDF"
  2. Verify file name
  3. Select "Options" and select "Convert document information", "Create pdf/a-1a:2005 compliant file", "Enable Accessibility and Reflow with tagged Adobe PDF", "Create Bookmarks", "Convert Comments" and "Page range" as desired.
  4. Select "OK"
  5. Select "Save"

Go to "File", select "Properties"

• Set Title of Document
  1. Navigate to the "Description" tab
  2. Enter meaningful document title next to "Title:"
  3. Navigate to "Initial View" tab
  4. Select "Document Title" from the drop-down menu next to "Show:"
  5. Select "OK"
• Set Primary Document Language
  1. Navigate to the "Advanced" tab
  2. Select the language of the document from the drop down menu next to "Language:"
  3. Select "OK"

• Images Via Accessibility Menu
  1. Select "Accessibility" tool from Tools menu on the right of the screen
  2. From the Accessibility Tools menu select "Set Alternate Text"
  3. Click "OK" on the pop up screen
  4. Enter alternative text in the space provided next to "Alternate text"; if decorative, select the box for "Decorative figure"
  5. Click arrow to go to the next image
  6. Repeat as needed
  7. Click "Save and Close" to keep all changes 
• Images Via Tags Tree
  1. Access tags tree from "Navigation Pane", by selecting "Tags" icon
  2. Click the arrow in front of "Tags" tag to expand the tags tree
  3. Locate "Figure" tag in the tree
     • If decorative image,
       1. Click the arrow before the "Figure" tag to expand that tag
       2. Right click the object tag
       3. Select "Change Tag to Artifact"
       4. Select "OK"
       5. Right click the now empty "Figure" tag and select "Delete Tag" from the menu
     • If visual content
       1. Right click the "Figure" tag
       2. Select "Properties" from the menu
       3. Enter alternative text in the space provided next to "Alternate Text:"
       4. Click "Close"
  4. Repeat as necessary for each "Figure" tag in the tags tree
• Links without meaningful labels
  1. Access tags tree from "Navigation Pane", by selecting "Tags" icon
  2. Click the arrow in front of "Tags" tag to expand the tags tree
  3. Right click the "Link" tag
  4. Select "Properties" from the menu
  5. Enter alternative text in the space provided next to "Alternate Text:"
  6. Click "Close"

1. Click "Page Thumbnails" (first) icon, at the top of the Navigation Pane on the left of the screen
2. With the Page Thumbnails icon active, navigate the thumbnail options menu, select "Page Labels"
3. Specify page ranges, designate numbering style from the drop down menu, specify start number and then select "OK"
4. Repeat as needed for varying page ranges and styles. 

1. Select "Bookmarks" (second) icon in the Navigation Pane
2. Navigate "Bookmark Options" menu to "New Bookmarks
3. Select, "New Bookmarks from Structure"
4. Highlight all structure items to be bookmarked
5. Select "OK" 

Accessibility Checkers can help detect some accessibility issues in your document.

Built-in Accessibility Checker

1. Click "Accessibility Check" in the Accessibility Tool Menu
2. Check desired settings from the Accessibility Checker Options pop-up window
3. Click "Start Checking"
4. Display the results by clicking on the accessibility checker icon located in the left Navigation Pane

External PDF Checker

• PAC2021
  1. Download PAC2021
  2. Right click and extract all files to unzip folder
  3. Run the .exe file
  4. Drag and drop file or click the file upload region to browse to a file to run the checker
  5. Click "Results in Detail" to examine the results of the checker for your file.