Document accessibility is a vast topic and can become quite complex. However, there are simple steps everyone can learn and enact to help people with disabilities glean the information they need from your documents. These steps will also improve the general usability of your documents for everyone.
If documents are shared on the web or are required for students, faculty, or staff then those documents must be accessible.
Regardless of the type of documents (HTML, Word, PowerPoint, etc.) you are working on, these principles are universal and will greatly improve the accessibility and general usability of your document.
The best way to ensure your PDF is accessible is to start with an accessible source document (e.g., Microsoft Word). That way, if changes need to be made in the source document, the accessibility features can be preserved in the new PDF version.
If the original source document is not available, it is possible to remediate an inaccessible PDF using Adobe Acrobat Pro. Adobe Acrobat Pro has two features that can help automate this process. The first is the “Make Accessible Action Wizard” that will find and walk you through fixing some common accessibility issues.
The second is a built-in “Full Accessibility Checker” that will help verify the work done so far. While both will help improve accessibility, neither of these automated solutions can make your document fully accessible by themselves, and manual verification will always be required.
Please keep in mind that editing a PDF can have unexpected results, so consider saving your work often as new versions.
To learn more about PDF accessibility, please see WebAIM’s article where they provide full details on the steps to create a fully accessible PDF document.
Accessible PDFs have tags added to the documents. These tags provide the structure of the document. While users do not interact with the tags directly, assistive technology uses the tags for navigation.
When creating a document, the default view of a PDF within Acrobat does not show the tags. To show the tags tool, go to the view menu, then select show/hide, navigation panes, then select tags.
The most efficient and effective method of generating these tags starts with your source document. When creating a PDF out of a Microsoft Word document that is appropriately using styles such as headings and paragraphs, these styles will convert to the tags needed in the PDF document.
If your document contains forms or tables, you will need to do additional work within Acrobat to make these accessible in the PDF. First, you should ensure the original tables are simple tables with one column heading and/or one row heading. After you convert your file to a PDF, you may need to edit or add the appropriate tags to identify cells as headers cells. If you must use complex tables, you may need to hire a Document Accessibility Specialist to make sure your complex tables are accessible.
General accessibility of PowerPoint documents follow the general accessiblilty principles, such as using the Accessibility Checker while creating your presentation. When creating a new PowerPoint, use built-in layouts since these are connected to the outline. If you delete the text fields on the layout and add your own, the text you enter will not be accessible to individuals utilizing screen readers.
A few simple items that will ensure your PowerPoint presentations are accessible include:
If you need more guidance, WebAIM provides additional instructions on creating accessible PowerPoint presentations.
Learn more about accessible documents through these additional resources: