Creating & Evaluating Accessibility PDFs

Evaluating accessibility, Optimizing PDFs in Acrobat, Reading Order, Content Order & Tag Order.

Creating & Evaluating Accessibility PDFs

Evaluating Accessibility

• The check accessibility tool marks when content doesn't have alternative text, but does not mark when alt text is incorrect.
  • Manual checks are needed.
• If something is labeled as an error by the accessibility checker it is difficult or impossible to read and understand for people with disabilities.
• If something is marked with a warning by an accessibility checker it is will most likely but not always impede the understanding of people with disabilities.

Creating PDFs

• PDFs provide more robust accessibility information for accessible technology.
• PDFs display / print more consistently across different platforms and devices.
• Most documents will need further revision / modification and PDFs make that more difficult.
• Creating PDFs requires some knowledge and paid software (Acrobat Pro).
• Acrobat Reader is free and allows you to view PDFs.
• Acrobat Standard is a paid program that lets you create PDFs and maintain the accessibility information of a source document.
• Acrobat Pro is a paid program that lets you review and optimize the accessibility information.
• Acrobat PDF Maker allows you to turn Word and PowerPoints into PDFs.
• Never use the Microsoft Print to PDF function as it does not maintain accessibility information.
• Do not convert a file to a PDF when saving it as this may not carry over the accessibility information correctly.

Optimizing PDFs in Acrobat

Optimizing PDFs

• In the document properties tab on Acrobat, it will tell you what the application used to create the file is.
• PDFs have three layers; visual, content, and tags.
  • The visual layer is what is seen on screen. It looks the same on whatever it is displayed on.
  • The content layer has basic information on text format and structure.
  • The tags layer defines the structures used to aid with assistive technology (headings, links, lists, tables).
• Screen readers only have access to tagged content.
• The order screen readers read them in is determined by the tag order.

Checking Accessibility

• Run an accessibility check and review the report.
• Logical reading order and color contrast must be reviewed manually.

Reading Order Tool

• It's better to change the document's reading order in the source document rather than the PDF when possible.
• When a document is exported to a PDF it may have tag structure issues.
•  Marking content as an "artifact" in Acrobat Pro leaves it visible but removes the tag, meaning screen readers won't read it.
• By default, headers and footers are not tagged.
  • Manually tag the footer text on the last page it appears on.

Content Order and Tags Order

• Manually tagged content needs to have their tag order repaired.
• Reflow allows content to be read on mobile devices or tablets.
• Content order determines what order content is in when reflowed.
• Only tagged elements are shown in reflow.
• You can click and drag or copy and paste elements to move elements to their correct position in the order tree.
• Verify order changes in the tags panel.