Tips for Creating Accessible PDF Documents

• Select the Tools tab.

• Locate the tool you would like to add. For example, “Accessibility.”
• Select the Add button that corresponds to the “Accessibility” tool to add it to the Tools Pane located on the right side of the screen.

• Repeat the steps above to add as many tools to the Tools Pane as you would like.

Assistive Technologies cannot read images of text, therefore, text has to be identified as legitimate text. For example, taking a picture of a menu in a restaurant is an image of text and not legitimate text.

• Select Scan & OCR from the Tools Pane on the right side of the screen.

• Choose Recognize Text followed by In This File.

• Select the Recognize Text blue button.

• The text in the document will be recognized as legitimate text and not remain as an image of text.
• When the process is completed. Select the Close button.

PDF tags are important as they are used to provide structure to a PDF document. Tags make a PDF file accessible. Assistive Technologies such as screen readers can’t read the document if the document does not contain tags. Example of some tags: Heading, Link, Figure, List, etc. There are many more.

Add Tags to a Document

• On the left side of the screen, click on the small triangle located half way down to open the Navigation Pane.

• Right click in a blank area of the Navigation Pane (the space that is revealed when the small triangle was clicked).
• From the menu that is displayed, select Tags to open the Tag Tree.

• If “No Tags Available” is displayed in the Tag Tree, right click “No Tags Available” and select Add Tags to Document.

• Select the Tag icon to see the tags that were added to the document.

• Click on the “X” to close the Tag Tree.

The tag order determines the order in which assistive technologies such as screen readers will navigate the document. For example: if tags are not in the correct order, a screen reader user may hear the first two paragraphs on a page followed by the fourth paragraph, then finally the third.

• Open the Navigation Pane (if it is not displayed) as described above under PDF Tags/Add Tags to a Document.
• Select the Tag icon to see the tags displayed in the tag tree.

• Select the first tag in the Tag Tree and use the up/down arrow keys on the keyboard to move through the tree. As you navigate, each tag will correspond to its respective element on the page allowing you to see the navigation order.

Re-ordering Tags

• Click on a tag’s icon and drag it to the desired location. As you drag, a thin line will appear indicating the tag is currently being dragged.

• The Reading Order tool should be used to create headings. This will allow users to skim and navigate the document quickly and with ease.
• Solely using Bold, Underline and Italics to identify headings will not make the document accessible to users who are visually impaired and blind users who use screen reading software.
• There should only be one “Heading 1” per document. Headings should follow a logical sequence, similar to using roman numerals and numbers and letters when creating an outline for a term paper.
• Along with legitimate headings, it is good practice to use consistent paragraph alignment, fonts, font size and spacing to create a well-structured document.

Note: when tagging a PDF file as outlined above in the “PDF Tags/Add Tags to a Document” section, headings may be created incorrectly, out of order, or not at all.

Create Headings

• Open the Tag Tree as described in PDF Tags/Add Tags to a Document
• From the Tools Pane (right side of screen) select Accessibility (if Accessibility is not on the Tools Pane, refer to the section above  Adding Tools to the Tools Pane.)
• Select Reading Order, the Reading Order dialog box will appear
• With the mouse, draw a rectangle around the text you would like to mark as a heading, then choose a heading level (heading 1, heading 2, etc.). The heading will now appear in the Tag Tree.

• When you have completed adding headings to the document, close the Reading Order dialog box by selecting the Close button.

• Select close from the Tools Pane to close the Accessibility tools.

• Finally, click on the “X” on the Navigation Pane to close the Tag Tree.

• Any images such as graphics, charts, tables, etc. must have descriptive alternate text describing what is represented by the image. If possible, it is recommended to use high quality images for optimal viewing for everyone.
• Don’t use images of text. If it is necessary to do so, add an alternative text description for the image.
• Open the Tag Tree from the Navigation Pane as describe above in the section PDF Tags/Add Tags to a Document.
• In the Tag Tree, locate and select the image to which the alternate text will be added. Images are displayed as <figure> tags.
• A box will appear around the image in the document to show that it corresponds to the selected <figure> tag.

• Right click on the “<figure>” tag and select Properties from the menu that appears.

• The Object Properties dialog box will appear.
• Type an appropriate description in the “Alternate Text” box.
• Select the Close button

• Navigate through the Tag Tree and add “alternate text” to additional images.
• Click on the “X” to close the Tag Tree.

• Hyperlinks can have long and confusing names and may often give the user no indication of their destinations without careful prodding. Shorter hyperlinks such as “click here”, “read more”, or “here” etc. also gives the user no indication of meaning and destination.
• Label hyperlinks in a meaningful way for screen reader users by using descriptive alternate text for hyperlinks. The alternate text should indicate what the user should expect once they activate the link.
• Adding alternate text to hyperlinks is important as screen reader users often read hyperlinks out of context for ease of navigation.
  For example, the alternate text for https://www.cnet.com/news/social-media/facebook-took-action-against-1-4-billion-pieces-of-spam-content-in-a-3-month-span/ can be labelled as: how Facebook took action against spam.

Adding Meaningful Alternate Text to a Hyperlink

• Open the Tag Tree from the Navigation Pane as describe above in PDF Tags/Add Tags to a Document.
• In the Tag Tree, locate and select the <Link> tag to which the alternate text will be added. A box will appear around the link in the document to show that it corresponds to the selected <Link> tag.

• Right click on the <link> tag and select Properties from the menu that appears.

• The Object Properties dialog box will appear.
• Type an appropriate description in the “Alternate Text” box.
• Select the Close button.

• Navigate through the Tag Tree and add “alternate text” to additional <Link> tags.
• Click on the “X” to close the Tag Tree.

• Click the File menu at the top left of the screen.
• Select Save As
• Give the file a name and select the desired destination.