PDF Accessibility

This page contains a guide on how to use Adobe Acrobat Pro to improve the accessibility of PDF documents. To read more about accessibility, check out the Accessibility Standards page of this playbook.

Accessibility resources:

How to make PDFs accessible in Adobe Acrobat Pro

Tip: Seeing a lot of errors?

Open your PDF in MS Word. If you see formatting issues (example: a bulleted list looks strange), correct them with the bulleted or numbered styles option. In the Review tab, click the Accessibility Checker tool. On the right hand side, you'll see a guide for fixing accessibility issues within MS Word.

When you've reviewed the document, export it as a PDF for electronic use. This will do some of the accessibility work for you! Then, open the document in Adobe Acrobat again and rerun the Prepare for Accessibility report.

Standards

Do:

  •  Use your best judgement for any element that requires a manual check, and select "Pass" if it passes.
  • Create your document in MS Word, then convert it to a PDF (Save As, or use the Adobe Conversion feature) and optimize with Adobe Acrobat.

Do NOT:

  • Create your document from scratch in Adobe Acrobat, unless you are well-versed in the program.
  • Run the "Automatically tag PDF" tool more than once. 

Written instructions

1. Open your document in Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Screenshot of an example document opened in adobe acrobat

2. Using the top navigation, select All tools, View more and Prepare for Accessibility.

Screenshot of left panel menu in Adobe Acrobat with red numbers next to tools. A red 1 is next to All Tools and a red 2 is next to View More..    Screenshot of adobe acrobat left hand menu with a red 3 next to Prepare for accessibility

Work in the accessibility report

1. Click "Check for accessibility." A box will open asking you what settings you want to use in the report. Make sure all items are checked, and click "Start Checking."
Screenshot of adobe acrobat left side menu with gold circle around Prepare for Accessibility.   Screenshot of adobe acrobat accessibility report with all check options selected and gold circle around Start Checking

2. On the right side of the screen, your report results will show. 

Screenshot of adobe acrobat accessibility report results with a gold box around the results on the right side of the screen

  • Anything that is marked "Pass" means that your pdf follows accessibility guidelines for that item.
  • Anything marked "Fail" means there is an accessibility issue.
  • Anything marked "Needs manual review" will require you to look at it and use your best judgement.

3. Open each element by clicking the drop-down carrot. Take note of the ones that Fail or Need a Manual Check.  These are the ones you'll need to adjust.

screenshot of adobe acrobat right side accessibility report

4. Right click on a "Failed" item that needs attention, and a small menu will pop up with your options.

  • "Fix" means Adobe Acrobat can guide you in how to fix the item, or can make the fix itself.
  • "Explain" means Adobe Acrobat will point you to a webpage with a description and tips on how to fix the item.

Screenshot of adobe acrobat accessibility report elements with maroon arrows pointing to Fix and Explain

5. In this example, Title needed an edit. By clicking "Fix" on this Title element, the program prompts a box asking for a manual entry of alternative text or relevant metadata. For this example, the user would type in the heading at the top of the document and select OK.

screenshot of adobe acrobat prompt for fixing title error

Needs manual check

Any item in the accessibility report marked "Needs manual review" will require you to look at it and use your best judgement. If you're not sure what to look for, select the "Explain" feature on that element of the report for more information.

Logical reading order

1. You will likely see '"Logical Reading Order" as an element that needs a manual check. Click the tool on the right side that resembles a "Z" to review the reading order that assistive technologies will use.

 Screenshot of adobe acrobat right side menu with gold circle around the check reading order icon

Make sure that the numbers are consecutive and aligned with how you would read through a page. You can drag and drop the content order if adjustments need to be made.

  • Not seeing the Z tag? Add it to your toolbar by right clicking to open a menu and selecting the icon you want to add.

Screenshot of adobe accessibility toolbar menu with the Z Order icon emphasized with a maroon arrow

2. If you need to add a tag or delete a tag (sometimes blank elements or decorative elements will be included in the reading order), open the tag feature on the right-hand toolbar.

  • Adding tags: Run the "Automatically tag PDF" tool on the left-hand menu. 
    • Try to limit your use of this tool to ONE time per PDF. Running it multiple times can create more problems.
  • Deleting tags: Select the element you want to delete a tag for, and choose "Delete tag."

Screenshot of adobe acrobat right hand menu with a gold circle over the tag icon           Screenshot of adobe acrobat menu from clicking on an element, with maroon arrows pointing to New Tag and Delete Tag

Color contrast

1. It's also likely that you'd have a "Needs manual check" note on "Color Contrast." Review the document and check that the text color and background color of the document are high contrast.

Screenshot of adobe acrobat accessibility report with gold circle around Color Contrast

If you have black or dark text on a white document, you can mark this as "Pass" because black and white have high visual contrast. An example of a "Failed" color contrast could be that your text is a medium gray and the background of your document is light gray.

 

Good job getting started with making your documents more accessible! As you continue, please refer to the resources at the top of this page.

Prep the document for the DAM

If you haven't already, make sure you reduce the size of your PDF before uploading your PDF to the DAM.