Checking a PDF for Accessibility

This guide is essential for anyone looking to ensure their PDFs are accessible, making them usable for individuals with disabilities. It provides a comprehensive step-by-step process to identify and fix accessibility issues, promoting inclusivity. By following these instructions, users can enhance their documents' compliance with accessibility standards and improve overall user experience. Ultimately, it empowers creators to produce content that is more universally accessible and engaging.

Katy Molony
32 steps
3 minutes

In Adobe Acrobat Pro, click "All tools"

Click "View More"

Click "Prepare for Accessibility"

Click "Check for Accessibility"

Select desired options and click "Start Checking"

On the right you will see a summary of issues. Clicking on the > will give you more details.

To see options for errors, right click on the failed element.

You can click "Fix" to automatically fix certain errors.

Some errors you need to correct manually.

The Logical Reading Order determines the order a screen reader will read your document.

To correct it, you can click on "Fix reading order" in the left menu.

You will then be given some options to help correct the order. To see the full order list, click "Show Order Panel".

The panel will show on the right menu. You can click and drag elements to correct the order.

Right clicking on elements give options such as "Display like elements in a single box"

You can also order your view by content order or by structure types. Page content order will give you the numbers elements are read. Structure types will take away the numbers and tell you what the elements have been labeled as (i.e. image/figure, text, heading, etc.)

You can also assign element types by drawing a rectangle around the element.

Then, click on the corresponding button. Images can be flagged as a figure. Images with words should include Figure/Caption

Words should also be labeled as either text or a heading.

Your main heading should be marked as "Heading 1". **There should only be one Heading 1 per document**

Heading 2 are your subheadings. You can have multiple of those.

Headings should have a logical structure and order. Example: H1 > H2 > H3 > H3>> H2 > H3 > H3

You can also right click items on the element panel to label them.

A new menu will pop up and you can tag the selected element.

Click "Tag as background/artifact" if the element is just decorative.

Click the "x" to close the order panel

Click "Add alternate text" in the left menu to correct any alternate text errors.

At the info box, click "OK"

The image will be highlighted and you can type the alt text in the box.

If the image is purely for visual enhancement and doesn't convey any essential information or context needed to understand the page's content, click "Decorative figure"

You can click the arrows to navigate through the images.

Continue adding the alt text or flagging as decorative until you have addressed each issue.

Click "Save & Close" to save any changes you made.