PDF Accessibility Solutions

Table of Contents

Introduction
Equidox
Adobe Acrobat Pro

Woman working on laptop computer with PDF symbol in background.
Web illustration by Storyset (https://storyset.com/web)
Introduction

Portable Document Files (PDFs) have been around since the early 90s.  They were initially created as a way to move document files from one platform to another without losing any of the formatting.  For that reason, PDFs are hard to edit and make changes to, by design!

As the world changed and technology became a bigger part of everyone's lives, PDF has become an even more popular format for sharing files.  However, as awareness of web accessibility continues to expand, faculty have had to learn how to create accessible documents using other platforms (such as Microsoft Office products), but how to make those old PDFs accessible has remained a bit of a mystery.  

While the Digital Learning Innovations office recommends using other types of documents (Word, PowerPoint, etc.) before PDF when possible, we recognize that sometimes using PDFs is necessary. For this reason, we've put together the following resources to help you make your PDFs as accessible as you can. 

Equidox

KSU has just acquired a new tool for PDF Accessibility: Equidox PDF Accessibility Solutions software makes remediating PDFs faster and much easier.  To learn more, click the button below!

Tell me more about Equidox

Adobe Acrobat Pro

If you are interested in learning more about what exactly is happening when you tag or OCR a PDF< click the cards below to find brief video resources demonstrating how to check for accessibility and fix errors in an accessibility check. Each step builds on the last, so going all the way through is a fairly robust start on PDF accessibility training. Alternately, you can pick and choose which items to view in the order that you want as needed.

You can also download the same sample document used in each video to practice making the changes yourself. We recommend watching each video, then downloading the PDF document and practicing as you watch the video again.  

Before you start, though, make sure you've got Adobe Acrobat Pro DC installed on your computer.  UITS provides this resource for KSU Faculty.

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1. Set Title and Language

Start with the easiest issues to fix. 

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2. Tag Paragraphs, Headings, and Images

Denote paragraphs, headings, and images using the Reading Order tool.

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3. Create Accessible Tables

Set table headings and add descriptions to ensure that your table is navigable.

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4. Set Tab Order

Learn how to fix the tab order error in the accessibility check using the Page Thumbnails tool.

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5. Tag Lists

Organize important content using a properly tagged list.

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6. Delete Empty Containers

Remove empty items left untagged. 

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7. Check Reading Order

Manually check the reading order using the Reading Order tool.

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8. Break a Large PDF into Smaller PDFs

Delete pages and break up a PDF into smaller chunks using the Organize Pages tool. 

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9. Structure and Tag Scanned PDFs

Assign structure to untagged, scanned PDFs using the OCR tool. 

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10. Create PDFs in Office

Save accessibility structures using the Adobe Tab in Microsoft Word.

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11. Rotate One or Two (or All) Pages

Use the Organize Pages tool to make sure pages are properly oriented.

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12. Use the Adobe Acrobat PDF Converter

For some PDFs converting to a Word document may be the fastest solution.

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13. Background Artifacts and Footnotes

Learn to properly tag more extraneous page elements.

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14. Walking the Tags Tree and Paragraph Continuity

 Learn how to check on your work and dive deeper into tagging paragraphs for reading continuity.

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15. Create a Bookmark Structure

Learn how to use the Headings you've already tagged to easily create a bookmark structure students can use to navigate the PDF.

Keep in mind, this is a basic introduction to PDF accessibility.  We will continue to add to it; but if you'd like more in-depth training, AWA recommends the Creating Accessible PDFs module on LinkedIn Learning as a great next step!

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