Create and verify PDF accessibility, Acrobat Pro

Creating Accessibile Documents. Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Guide. Click the Options. Make sure the Document structure tags for accessibility is selected and then click OK.

Select the radio button “Best for electronic distribution and accessibility uses Microsoft online service “. First Steps to Take in Acrobat Pro. Make sure the document has recognized text If the document has text, as most documents will, recognize text should be run first to make sure that all of the text becomes “readable”. Check the Reading Order The reading order helps to determine how the document looks depending on how it is viewed.

Check Tables for Proper Setup If the document contains one or more tables, check the tables to make sure that header rows are properly marked. There should be a number in the upper left-hand corner of the object. Once the Table is selected, click on the Table Editor button in the dialog box. The table will appear with red lines. Right-click a cell and select Table Cell Properties Set the proper cell values for Headers or Data Cells.

Click the big “X” to exit. Check Headings for Accuracy Look at the structure of the document visually to determine what the heading structure should be that makes the most sense for reading through the document. Use the forms tools in Acrobat Pro to add fillable form fields. Moreover, if you tag the form during conversion to PDF, the authoring application can generate inappropriate tags for the text labels of the form fields.

In a complex form, for example, the text labels for all the fields can run together into a single line. Such reading order problems can require time-consuming work in Acrobat Pro to split the labels apart. In this case, producing an untagged PDF form from the authoring application is sometimes the better course. You can then use the Forms tools in Acrobat Pro to add fillable form fields before you tag the entire document. Some forms are straightforward enough that you can produce a tagged PDF from the authoring application.

Then perform light touch-up in Acrobat Pro after you add the fillable form fields. Forms tend to have relatively complex layouts compared to documents that have a simple, single-column structure. The success that an application has in analyzing and tagging a form depends largely on the original formatting and layout of a document, and the types of fields that it uses.

When you design a form, include headings, instructions, and fields in which users are to enter data. At a minimum, give each field a label. Also add special instructions for fields that need them. Use graphics tools to draw lines and boxes. Adding descriptions to form fields enables screen readers to identify the fields to users. Users hear the description read aloud when they tab to the field. Write descriptions that are terse but complete.

The tab order for form fields enables people with disabilities to use a keyboard to move from field to field in a logical order. You can test the tab order of a form by using the following keyboard commands:. This tool also enables you to fix any reading order problems of the text labels for the form fields.

For example, you may need to split merged lines of fields into individual fields. Legal Notices Online Privacy Policy. User Guide Cancel. Workflow for creating accessible PDFs. At a high level, the process of creating accessible PDFs consists of a few basic stages:. Consider accessibility before you convert a document to PDF.

As needed, add fillable form fields and descriptions, and set the tab order. Add other accessibility features to the PDF.

Accessibility features Search. Setting accessibility preferences. Set accessibility preferences with the Accessibility Setup Assistant. Windows only Start Acrobat Reader for the first time while a screen reader or screen magnifier is running. Set accessibility preferences with the Preferences dialog box.

Accessibility preferences in Accessibility panel. Replace Document Colors: Select this preference to choose from a list of contrasting color combinations for text and background, or you can create your own.

Always Use The System Selection Color: When selected, the default selection color blue is overridden with a color that the system specifies.

Files mode provides a better reading experience for people with disabilities, such as mobility impairments, blindness, and low vision. Accessibility preferences in Documents panel. Each time a PDF is saved, the screen reader or magnifier must reload the document. Accessibility preferences in Forms panel. Fields Highlight Color and Required Fields Highlight Color: These preferences specify what colors are used to highlight fillable form fields.

Auto-Complete: Enables Acrobat Reader to automatically offer to complete some entries in form fields so that filling form fields requires fewer keystrokes.

Accessibility preferences in Multimedia panel. Show Subtitles When Available. Play Dubbed Audio When Available. Accessibility preferences in Page Display panel. Zoom: Sets the onscreen magnification of documents and allows low-vision readers to read reflowed PDFs more easily.

Smooth Text: Controls anti-aliasing of text. To disable smoothing of text and make text sharper and easier to read with a screen magnifier, choose None. Accessibility preferences in Reading panel. Reading Order: Specifies the reading order of documents. The reading order preferences also appear in the Accessibility Setup Assistant. Infer Reading Order From Document Recommended : Interprets the reading order of untagged documents by using an advanced method of structure inference layout analysis.

Left-To-Right, Top-To-Bottom Reading Order: Delivers the text according to its placement on the page, reading from left to right and then top to bottom. The right-hand pane changes to display each task included in the Make Accessible action, as well as the instructions to execute the action.

Select the files that you want to apply the Make Accessible action to. By default, the action runs on the document that’s currently open. Select Add Files to select additional files or a folder to run the action on.

A good way to check the accessibility of a document is to use tools that your readers will use. Even if you do not have access to those tools, Adobe Acrobat provides an automated way to check the accessibility of a PDF file.

You can choose which accessibility problems to look for and how you want the results reported. In the Report Options section, select options for how you want to view the results. You can save the results as an HTML file on your system, or attach the results file to the document itself.

Click Start Checking. The results are displayed in the Accessibility Checker panel on the left, which also has helpful links and hints for repairing issues. If you created a report in step 2, the results are available in the selected folder.

Choose one of the following options from the context menu:. Acrobat either fixes the item automatically, or displays a dialog box prompting you to fix the item manually. Deselects this option in the Accessibility Checker Options dialog box for future checks of this document, and changes the item status to Skipped. Opens the online Help where you can get more details about the accessibility issue.

Check Again:. Show Report:. Opens the Accessibility Checker Options dialog box, so you can select which checks are performed. A document author can specify that no part of an accessible PDF is to be copied, printed, extracted, commented on, or edited.

This setting could interfere with a screen reader’s ability to read the document, because screen readers must be able to copy or extract the document’s text to convert it to speech. This flag reports whether it’s necessary to turn on the security settings that allow accessibility.

To fix the rule automatically, select Accessibility Permission Flag on the Accessibility Checker panel. Then, choose Fix from the Options menu.

Choose No Security from the Security Method drop-down list. Click OK and close the Document Properties dialog box. If your assistive technology product is registered with Adobe as a Trusted Agent, you can read PDFs that might be inaccessible to another assistive technology product. Acrobat recognizes when a screen reader or other product is a Trusted Agent and overrides security settings that would typically limit access to the content for accessibility purposes.

However, the security settings remain in effect for all other purposes, such as to prevent printing, copying, extracting, commenting, or editing text. See the related WCAG section: 1. Reports whether the document contains non-text content that is not accessible. If the document appears to contain text, but doesn’t contain fonts, it could be an image-only PDF file.

Or, to fix this rule check manually, use OCR to recognize text in scanned images:. Select the pages you want to process, the document language, and then click Recognize Text. Non-text content A. Acrobat automatically adds tags to the PDF. Verify this rule check manually. Make sure that the reading order displayed in the Tags panel coincides with the logical reading order of the document. Setting the document language in a PDF enables some screen readers to switch to the appropriate language. This check determines whether the primary text language for the PDF is specified.

If the check fails, set the language. To set the language automatically, select Primary Language in the Accessibility Checker tab, and then choose Fix from the Options menu.

To fix the title automatically, select Title in the Accessibility Checker tab, and choose Fix from the Options menu. Enter the document title in the Description dialog box deselect Leave As Is , if necessary. See the related WCAG section: 2.

This check fails when the document has 21 or more pages, but doesn’t have bookmarks that parallel the document structure. To add bookmarks to the document, select Bookmarks on the Accessibility Checker panel, and choose Fix from the Options menu. In the Structure Elements dialog box, select the elements that you want to use as bookmarks, and click OK. You can also access the Structure Elements dialog box by clicking the Options menu on the Bookmark tab and selecting the New Bookmarks From Structure command.

See the related WCAG sections: 2. When this check fails, it’s possible that the document contains content that isn’t accessible to people who are color-blind. To fix this issue, make sure that the document’s content adheres to the guidelines outlined in WCAG section 1. Or, include a recommendation that the PDF viewer use high-contrast colors:.

Choose the color combination that you want from the drop-down list, and then click OK. This check reports whether all content in the document is tagged. Make sure that all content in the document is either included in the Tags tree, or marked as an artifact. See the related WCAG sections: 1. This rule checks whether all annotations are tagged. Make sure that annotations such as comments and editorial marks such as insert and highlight are either included in the Tags tree or marked as artifacts.

To have Acrobat assign tags automatically to annotations as they’re created, choose Tag Annotations from the Options menu on the Tags panel. Because tabs are often used to navigate a PDF, it’s necessary that the tab order parallels the document structure. To fix the tab order automatically, select Tab Order on the Accessibility Checker panel, and choose Fix from the Options menu.

Click the Page Thumbnails panel on the navigation pane.

Adobe acrobat pro dc accessibility guide free download

 
This tutorial will walk users with Adobe Acrobat Pro DC through the use of these features Enhance Scans Icon in PDF document with drop down menu option. Add other accessibility features to the PDF. In Acrobat Pro, this stage includes setting the document language, making sure that security. Accessibility features in Acrobat, Acrobat Reader, and PDF enable people with disabilities to use PDF documents, with or without screen.