PDF Accessibility

The PDF file type was created to preserve formatting across platforms and software. This makes PDFs difficult to edit or change. From an accessibility standpoint, it’s better to keep files in their original formats (such as Word Documents and PowerPoints) whenever possible. If that’s not an option, you can use these resources to make new and existing PDFs as accessible as possible.

Creating New PDF Files

If you’re creating a new PDF, make sure the source document is accessible. From there, you can convert the file, and its accessibility features will be carried over to the PDF. Check out these instructions for creating accessible documents in some common formats:

Once a document has been made accessible, it can be saved as an accessible PDF. 

  1. Choose File > Save As.
  2. Expand the “File Type” dropdown and choose “PDF (.pdf)”.

Note:  Do not use export widgets or plugins, as they don’t preserve the tags needed for PDF accessibility.

Editing Existing PDF Files

If you don’t have access to the original file, use this guide to work with the PDF itself. Keep in mind that most of these adjustments can only be made to high-quality PDFs. Scanned PDFs can’t be made accessible without starting the process from scratch. If you aren’t sure if your PDF is high-quality, check this Adobe overview for the standards you should be looking for. 

The following instructions are for making adjustments to PDFs using Adobe Acrobat DC.

Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat and Use the Accessibility Checker

Note:  Make sure your Adobe Acrobat software is updated to the newest version. Otherwise, these steps will be difficult to follow and may be different on older versions.

The accessibility checker can be accessed from the toolbar on the right side menu or from the “Tools” tab located at the top of the page. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, you can request it via the Adobe Creative Cloud Request form. Adobe Creative Cloud is free through the University. 

  1. With the document open in Acrobat, click on the All Tools tabs in the top navigation bar.
  2. Select Prepare for Accessibility. If the Prepare for Accessibility option doesn’t show up in the toolbar, then it may need to be added. To do this, click on "View More" at the bottom of the list and find it in the expanded options. This item can be moved nearer the top of the list of tools.

    Screenshot of Adobe Acrobat showing the “All tools” panel open. The “All tools” tab is outlined in red at the upper left, and a red arrow near the bottom points to the “View more” link.
  3. In the left toolbar, select Check For Accessibility.
  4. A pop-up box will appear. Make sure all the boxes are checked under the Checking Options section.

    A section of the pop-up box that appears after selecting the Check For Accessibility option in Adobe Acrobat. The Checking Options section shows the accessibiliting check opptions a user can choose for the document. The options include Category: with the option Document selected, then the listed items with a check next to them include, accessibility permission flag is set, document is not image-only PDF, document is tagged PDF, document structure provides a logical reading order, text language is specified, document title is showing in title bar, bookmarks are present in large documents, document has appropriate color contrast. Below these options are two buttons. The left one saying Select All while the right one says Clear All.
  5. Then select Start Checking.

    Adobe Acrobat Prepare for Accessibility menus are show with the Check For Accessibility highlighted as step 1, the Accessibility Options selected checkboxes highlighted as step 2, and the Start checking button highlighted at Step 3.
  6. A sidebar labeled Accessibility Checker will appear on the screen with all the issues in the file.

    Adobe Acrobat Accessibility checker windows open with the checker sidebar highighted.
  7. Click the Documents drop-down menu.
  8. Each issue will be preceded by a small red or blue icon. Any issues that aren’t found will be followed by the word Passed.

    Adobe Acrobat sidebar of the Accessibility Checker with the document error section highlighted and expanded.
  9. You can get more information on any of the items in the list by right-clicking the issue and then selecting “Explain.”
  10. You can now go down the list of issues and edit the document. A list of possible issues and the steps to solve them can be found below.

List of Possible Accessibility Check Issues

Tagged PDF

Tags are labels that define the different types of content in the documents. They make the document usable with screen readers.

Note: The following tags will be used most often in the document: The H1 tag should be reserved for the document title. Headings from H2 to H6 should follow a logical, chronological order. Regular body text should be enclosed in the P tag. For lists, use ol for ordered lists and ul for unordered lists, depending on the content

Occasionally, Acrobat will misidentify tags in a document. Most times, these issues should be fixed before any other accessibility problem can be solved.

  1. These issues are labeled as “Tagged PDF” under the “Document” drop-down menu in the Accessibility Checker on the sidebar.
  2. Select the tag icon in the Navigation Pane (this is the bar to the side of the Accessibility Checker toolbar). A list of the tags in the file will be shown (there may not be any tags in the document).

    The Adobe Acrobat Accessibility tag windo is shown with no tag available. A red arrow points to the tag icon that opens this feature on the right side tool menu.
    • If this icon isn’t visible, right-click on an empty part of the Navigation Pane and select the tag icon from the list that pops up. 

      The Adobe Acrobat Accessibility checker window is shown alongside the right side tool menu. An arrow points to an empty place on the tool bar to click for the mini menu. The minin menu has the Accessibility Tag option highighted.
  3. Tags can be automatically generated by choosing "Automatically Tag PDF" from the Prepare for Accessibility menu on the left of the document.

    The Adobe Acrobat Prepare for accessibility menus with the Automatically tag PDF option highlighted on the right side menu and Accessibility tags created and visible on the left.
  4. From this menu, nested Accessibility tags can be expanded, and then individual tags can be edited if they have been misidentified.
    • An example would be that images are tagged with the “Figure” button, tables with the “Table” button, etc.
  5. Make sure the tags are in the order in which the document should be read.

Reading Order (Tag Order)

Sometimes the PDF will have an automatically assigned reading order. This means that the order that the tags show up in the Tags section of the Navigation Pane are the order that a screen reader will read them in. Review the tags to make sure they are in the correct order.

  1. Go down the list of tags and click on each tag. Some tags may be nested inside another and need to be expanded to see them individually. 
  2. When the tag is selected, a pink box will highlight the content that is tagged.

    Adobe Acrobat Accessibiity tag window is open with an H2 tag highlighted and a red arrow pointing to the pink higlight surrounding the Subheading text.
  3. If the tags are out of order, select the tag you would like to move and drag it to the position you want it to be in.

Title

  1. Go to the title issue under the Document drop-down menu.
  2. Right-click the “Title”.
  3. Select “Fix”.

    The Adobe Acrobat Assesibility Checker window is show with a right click mini menu over the Title error. The mini menu is highlighting the Fix option.
  4. A pop-up will appear. Deselect Leave As Is and then type in the title of the document.

    Adobe Acrobat Accessibility checker with the title fix popup for the title description visible. A red arrow points to the clear Leave As Is check box in the Title area.

Occasionally, the Fix option won’t automatically solve the issue. To solve this problem, follow the steps below. 

  1. Select the Menu option in the upper left-hand corner and click on Document Properties (Ctrl + D).

    Adobe Acrobat Menu options open with a red arrow pointing to the Document Properties option.
  2. A pop-up will appear, and you will be able to type the title in the Descriptions Tab in the Title bar.
  3. Click OK.

    Adobe Acrobat Document Properties windows with an arrow pointing the the Title field.

Language

  1. Right-click the Language option under the Document drop-down menu.
  2. Select Fix.
  3. Choose the correct language in the pop-up bar.
  4. Select OK.

Bookmarks 

  1. Before fixing these errors, make sure the document is fully tagged. Otherwise, there won’t be any bookmarks to fix.
  2. Right-click the Bookmarks option under the Documents drop-down menu.
  3. Select Fix.
  4. A pop-up menu will appear. Choose Select all and then OK.

Tab Order

The tab order is what allows a user to use the “Tab” key to navigate through a file. It will appear under the “Page Content” section of the accessibility checker. 

  1. Right-click and select Fix. 

Alternative Text 

Alternative text (alt text) is a text description of an image. This is read by assistive technology, such as screen readers, for users who are blind or have low vision. When adding alternative text, keep it concise and relevant to the document’s context. Describe what’s essential about the image—avoid phrases like “image of” and make sure to end with punctuation. If you’re unsure about what to say, you can use generative AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.) for ideas. To add alt text to an image:

  1. Right-click on Figures alternate text-failed error under the Accessibility Checker sidebar.
  2. Choose Fix. 
  3. A pop-up text box with arrows leading to each image in the PDF will appear.
  4. Add alt text for each image inside the dialogue box.
  5. Select Save & Close.

    Adobe Acrobat alt text window is show open from the Accessibility check error window.

The other way to add Alt Text for the figures in the documents is to select Edit Alternate Text from the Prepare for Accessibility menu:

  1. Go to the Prepare for Accessibility menu options.
  2. Click Add Alternate Text.
  3. A pop-up will appear asking for permission to detect all figures and their alternative text. 

    Add alternative text pop up is displayed asking to detect all figures in the document.
  4. Select OK.
  5. Add Alt Text in the field of the pop-up window. 
  6. Use arrows to move through each figure, adding alt text to each.
  7. Click on Save & Close.  

Tables

Tagging tables helps screen readers identify them; however, further steps should be taken to help identify other parts of the tables, such as headers. If these other steps aren’t taken, issues will appear in the accessibility checker under the Tables tab as Headers.

To fix a table header problem:

  1. Right-click on the table tag in the Accessibility tags pane, and an options menu will pop up. 
  2. Choose Table Editor from that mini menu.

    Adobe Acrobate accessible Tags pane is open showing the Table options menu after the Tabel tag has been right clicked. The Table Editor option is highlighted.

  3. Use your mouse to select the header cell(s) and right-click on them. 
  4. Choose Table Cell Properties from the mini menu. Screenshot of Adobe Acrobat Accessibility tags editor with a table header row selected and the mini menu open on the header row. The option for Tabel Cell Properites is highlighted.

  5. In the Table Cell Properties window that opens, change the Type from Data Cell to Header Cell.
  6. Select the scope for those cells. Either Rows or Columns (Rows define a horizontal set of data while columns define a vertical set of data).
  7. Click OK.

    Adobe Acrobat's Tabnle Cell Properties window is open with the radio button for Header cell marked. The scope is set to row and the Ok button is highlighted as well.

Note: If an alert pops up next to the summary option under the tables drop-down menu, this is a section where you can summarize the data in your table. You can skip this step as it is not necessary; however, if you would like to add one, feel free to do so.

Lists

Lists need to be formatted correctly for screen readers to read them as lists. Otherwise, they are read as regular text.

  1. Go to the Tags icon in the Navigation Bar.
  2. Double-click on the tag that is supposed to be a list.

    Screenshot of Adobe Acrobat Accessibility panel with the list tags and highlighted.
  3. Tag the entire list with the List tag (L).
  4. Then tag each individual list sub-item with a List Item (LI) tag.
  5. Watch this video walkthrough from KSU for more detailed instructions.

Note: Ordered lists (numbered) use the tag OL, and for unordered lists (bullet points), the tag is UL. All list items will be tagged LI.

Color Contrast

Color contrast will always show up as a blue icon error. This means that Acrobat wants you to manually check if there’s an issue. You can generally ignore any color contrast issues.

Screenshot of Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Checker panel with the Color Contast error highlighted.

Ignore Warnings for Logical Reading Order

If Acrobat flags Logical Reading Order, ignore these warnings. 

Save and Recheck

After fixing issues, save the file, then re-run the Accessibility Checker to confirm all items are addressed.