Producing Accessible PDF Documents

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a universal file format that preserves all the fonts, formatting, images, and color of any source document, regardless of the application used to create it. PDF files are compact and can be viewed, navigated, and printed exactly as intended by users that have Adobe Reader. PDFs are well known for their security features. In addition to text-based documents, PDFs can also be used as forms.  

The guidance on this page is intended to help users understand accessibility requirements for PDFs and to provide instruction to create accessible PDFs. For detailed information on how to evaluate exiting PDFs, please review Evaluating PDFs for Accessibility.

PDF Limitations and Alterative Considerations

Compared to websites, PDFs have limited styling and interactive functionality. PDFs can also be a challenge to accessibility if the document is extremely complex and if it was not created with accessibility in mind. Before deciding to create a PDF, users may want to consider more accessible alternatives such as creating HTML webpages or creating View-Only Word Documents.  

For more information on this topic, Pope Tech has a great article titled Inaccessible PDFs? How to know when to use HTML webpages instead of PDFs.

What is an Accessible PDF?

A PDF is considered accessible if it can be viewed, read, and interacted with by all users, including those who rely on assistive technology.  

Proper tagging is a critical component for accessibility. Tags provide logical structure to the content and determine how a screen reader announces the content. While proper tagging is critical, tagging alone does not make the document accessible. 

Adobe provides an overview of accessibility features in its article titled What is an accessible PDF?. 

How to Make PDFs Accessible

There are many paths to create an accessible PDF, with the recommended practice being to optimize the source document for accessibility. Testing and remediating the PDF requires Adobe Acrobat and PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC). Remediating PDFs without access to the source document typically requires a moderate to advanced level of knowledge.

Starting with the Source Document

The purpose of this section is to show a document creator the steps to create an accessible document, starting with optimizing the source document for accessibility, converting the file to Adobe, performing manual quality control checks, and then running accessibility checkers as a final quality control measure.  

Step 1: Optimize the source document.
  • If your source document is Microsoft Word, start with How to Make Word Documents Accessible, and then follow the rest of these instructions.
  • If you are starting from PowerPoint or Adobe InDesign, guidance is forthcoming.
Step 2: Convert the source document to a tagged PDF.
  1. From Word (Windows)
    1. File > Save as Adobe PDF
    2. In the pop-up dialog, click “Options”
    3. In the next pop-up dialog, make sure the following remain checked:
      1. “Enable Accessibility and Reflow with tagged Adobe PDF”  
      2. “Convert Word Headings to Bookmarks”
    4. Click “Ok” > “Save”
  2. From Word (MAC)
    1. File > Save As
    2. In the file format drop-down menu, select PDF
    3. Select the radio button: “Best for electronic distribution and accessibility”
    4. Click Export
Step 3: Open Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat is available to all Ohio State faculty and staff. Contact your local IT for assistance with installation.

Configuration Tip: Before you get started, you should consider adding some accessibility features to the side bar in Adobe. To do so, open a PDF and navigate to Menu > View > Show/Hide > Side Panel and select “Accessibility Checker”, “Accessibility tags”, “Content”, and “Order”.  

Step 4: Add metadata to the PDF
  1. Menu > Document Properties > Description > add title
  2. While in Document Properties, navigate to the “Advanced” tab and add language.
Step 5: Review the reading order in the Order Pane.

Check the reading order to see how the content will be presented to a user when enlarging text. This is referred to as reflow, or the visual stacking order of the content.  

  1. In the Order Pane, review the numbered items of content. Are they presented in a logical reading order? If not, that may be a sign of a reflow issue.
  2. As a secondary check Adobe offers a “reflow” view. Navigate to Menu > View > Zoom > Reflow. Check to see if any content is out of order, disappears, is difficult to read, or overlaps other content.
Step 6: Review the tags in the Tag Pane.
  1. Check the tag order in a similar manner to the Order Pane. Screen readers typically read content according to the order of the tags. Open the Tags Pane from the right-hand tool menu. Navigate through the tags. If you were to read this document visually, would it be the same order as the tags?
  2. Ensure the proper heading and paragraph structure remain intact. Screen readers will read the content by each tag element and not by its visual appearance, so it’s important to ensure the tags reflect the document’s visible appearance. 
Step 7: Find and review Unmarked Content

Identify items in the document that have not been tagged properly. All content must be in the tag pane (tag tree) or marked as “artifact” if decorative.

  1. In the tag pane, click on the Options Menu (three dots) and select “Find”. From the drop-down menu, select “Unmarked Content”, select “Search Document”, select “Find”. 
Step 8: Review the keyboard tab order

If the document has links, form fields, or buttons, confirm that the tab order is logical. With the document open and cursor in the document pane (click the document or press F5), tab through the document. Tabbed items should receive focus and should follow a logical order as users navigate through the document.

Step 9: Final Automated Checks 

Finally, run the Adobe Accessibility Checker and PAC 2024 Accessibility Checker to confirm there are no other issues. Additional information about these checkers can be found in the "Automated Accessibility Checkers" section on the Evaluating Accessible PDF Documents page. 

 

Starting with an untagged PDF, poorly tagged PDF, or scanned document

If you do not have access to the source document, you will have to assess the current state of the PDF to determine where to start with your assessment and remediation efforts. This information is covered in the following materials: Deque Quick Reference Guide: Basic PDF Accessibility.  

Things to Avoid

  • When converting a source document to PDF, avoid selecting Print > Print to PDF, as this will result in an untagged PDF.
  • Within Acrobat, avoid selecting create PDF from the following, as these options result in an untagged PDF:
    • Scanner
    • Screenshot
    • Web Page
    • Clipboard
  • When making edits to the PDF, especially within the Order Pane or Tag Tree, it is very easy to make a mistake that may be difficult to undo. For this reason, it is best practice to do a file “save as” while making edits so that you can revert to the original document and make the fixes correctly.

Accessibility Issues?

If you have noted accessibility issues, the document needs remediated. To successfully remediate a document, please ensure that you have the required training and review the information in the section titled “You have an inaccessible PDF. What next?” on the Evaluating PDFs for Accessibility page.

Additional Resources

Required Training

If you are creating PDFs that will be used to deliver information related to a program, service, or activity at OSU, you must take one of the following Deque courses:

If you are remediating PDFs, you must take both of the following courses:

Credit

The OSU Digital Accessibility team would like to thank the following for sharing some of their digital accessibility best practices and guidance: OSU Engineering Technology Services, OSU Wexner Medical Center -  Marketing and Strategic Communications, IT Accessibility at the University of Michigan, and University of Arkansas Explore Access.