Making Your PDF Accessible in English: Tips and Techniques

PDF is a popular digital document format that allows easy sharing and distribution of files. However, not all PDFs are accessible to everyone, especially those with disabilities. An accessible PDF means that everyone, regardless of their abilities, can access and understand the information presented in the document. In this article, we will discuss how to make a PDF accessible and ensure that it is compliant with accessibility standards.

Making your PDF accessible involves optimizing the document’s structure, adding alternative text for images, and ensuring proper formatting. For instance, when creating a document, you should use headings and subheadings to organize the content and make it easy to navigate. By doing so, screen readers can identify the structure of the document and enable easy reading for those with visual impairments. Additionally, graphics and images that convey information should have alternative text added, allowing visually impaired readers to understand the meaning of the image. Proper formatting ensures the document is easy to read and characters are legible, and the use of color is not the only means of communication.

10 Steps to Make a PDF Accessible

Making a PDF accessible is an important step towards ensuring that everyone, regardless of their ability, can access and understand its content. In this section, we will discuss ten steps that you can follow to make your PDFs accessible.

1. Use Proper Structure

Using proper structure is the foundation for making a PDF accessible. Start by using headings and subheadings to organize your content. This helps readers navigate through the document and find information quickly. It also helps those who may use assistive technology like screen readers to understand the hierarchy of the content.

2. Add Alternative Text to Images

Adding alternative text (alt text) to images is important for readers who may not be able to see the images. Alt text should describe the content of the image so that these readers can still understand the message. For example, if you have an image of a dog, the alt text should read “a brown dog playing fetch in the park”.

3. Add Document Properties

Adding document properties like author name, title, and subject is important for organizing and describing your document. This information helps people who use assistive technology to identify and find the document. You can add these properties in the Document Properties menu.

4. Use Accessible Colors

Using accessible colors in your PDFs ensures that everyone can read and understand the content. Avoid using color combinations that are difficult to read, like red and green. Use high contrast colors for text and background to help those with visual impairments.

5. Create Meaningful Links

Creating meaningful links helps readers navigate through your document and understand its content. Be sure to use descriptive text for links and avoid using generic phrases like “click here”. Readers who use assistive technology can quickly navigate through a document if links are labeled properly.

6. Use Accessible Fonts and Sizes

Using accessible fonts and sizes is important for reading comfort and clarity. Avoid using decorative fonts and use sans-serif fonts like Arial or Calibri. Use a minimum font size of 12 points to ensure that the document is easy to read.

7. Add Table Headers and Descriptions

Adding table headers and descriptions is important for those who use assistive technology like screen readers. This information helps them understand the structure of the table and the data it contains. Be sure to use concise and clear descriptions for each table.

8. Use Properly Tagged PDFs

Properly tagged PDFs ensure that assistive technology can easily interpret the content. Tags identify the structure and organization of the content and help readers navigate through the document. This step is essential for making a PDF accessible.

9. Use Logical Reading Order

Using logical reading order ensures that readers can follow the content in a reasonable sequence. This is important for those who use assistive technology like screen readers. Avoid using overlapping content, images, or text that can disrupt the reading order.

10. Test for Accessibility

After implementing all these steps, it’s important to test your document for accessibility. You can use tools like Adobe Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker to identify any issues that may have been missed. Testing for accessibility ensures that your PDF is truly accessible to everyone.

Following these ten steps can help you create PDFs that are more accessible for everyone. By creating accessible PDFs, you are helping to level the playing field and ensuring that everyone has equal access to information.

How to Add Alternate Text to Images

Images are an important part of any document, but they can be difficult to properly describe for screen readers. This is where alternate text comes in handy. Alternate text, also known as alt text, is a brief description of an image that can be read by screen readers. Here’s how to add alternate text to images in your PDF:

1. Select the image you want to add alternate text to in your PDF document.
2. Right-click on it and select “Properties” from the dropdown menu.
3. In the “Description” tab, add a brief description of the image in the “Alternate text” field.
4. Click “OK” to close the properties window.

Make sure to use brief but descriptive language to convey the meaning of the image without being too verbose. Remember, alt text is for screen readers and should be kept concise.

Best Practices for Adding Alt Text

To ensure that your alt text is effective, follow these best practices:

1. Be descriptive: Use concise but descriptive language to provide context for each image.

2. Avoid redundancy: Don’t simply repeat the text in the image in your alt text – it doesn’t provide any additional value.

3. Be mindful of character limit: Keep the alt text brief, preferably under 125 characters.

4. Describe context: Consider the context surrounding the image and use the alt text to clarify its purpose and meaning.

5. Test your alt text: Use a screen reader to test your alt text and ensure it accurately describes the image.

By following these best practices, you can ensure that your PDF documents are accessible to all users, including those with visual impairments who rely on screen readers.

What about decorative images?

Some images in your document may be purely decorative and not add any value to the meaning of the content. In this case, you can mark the images as “decorative” so that screen readers skip over them when reading the document. Here’s how to mark an image as decorative in your PDF:

1. Select the image in your document.
2. Right-click on it and select “Properties” from the dropdown menu.
3. In the “Tag” tab, check the checkbox labeled “Decoration”.
4. Click “OK” to close the properties window.

Marking decorative images as such helps to keep your document concise and easy to navigate while ensuring that screen readers don’t waste time describing something that’s not worth describing in detail.

Why is Alt Text Important?

Alt text is important because it allows people with visual impairments to understand the content of a document even if they can’t see the images. By providing concise and descriptive alt text, you’re increasing the inclusivity of your content and ensuring that it’s accessible to everyone.

In addition, adding alt text can also improve your document’s search engine optimization (SEO) by making it more discoverable on search engines like Google. Search engines crawl alt text to determine the relevance of your content, so using descriptive and accurate alt text can help improve your search rankings.

How to Create Tables for Accessibility

Tables are a frequently used element in many PDF documents, but they can be difficult for screen readers to interpret without appropriate markup. Here are some tips for creating accessible tables in your documents:

1. Set headers: Use the “Header Row” feature in your table formatting to mark the header cells of your table, which will help screen readers better understand the structure of the table.

2. Define column widths: Defining the widths of your columns can help keep your table consistent and easy to read.

3. Keep it simple: Avoid overcomplicating your tables by only using them when absolutely necessary and keep the number of rows and columns to a minimum.

4. Use plain language: When writing content within the table, use plain language instead of technical or jargon-filled language to ensure that it’s easily understood by all users.

By following these tips, you can create tables that are easy to understand and navigate for both sighted and visually impaired users.

What is Tagging? And why it’s necessary

Tagging is the process of adding structure to your PDF document to help screen readers better understand its content. It involves adding tags to your document’s structure, such as headings, paragraphs, lists, and tables, that inform screen readers about the logical order and hierarchy of the content.

Tagging is important because it ensures that screen readers navigate the document in the correct order and understand the relationships between different parts of the content. Properly tagged PDFs are also more easily searchable on search engines, which can be beneficial for SEO.

How to Add Tags to Your PDF

Adding tags to your PDF is a relatively simple process. Here’s how to do it in Adobe Acrobat:

1. Open the PDF you want to tag.
2. Click “Tools” in the toolbar and select “Accessibility” from the dropdown menu.
3. Select “Add Tags to Document” under the “Accessibility” toolbar.
4. Once the tagging is complete, save the document.

Tagging is an essential step in making your PDFs accessible, so be sure to take the time to properly tag your documents.

How to Check Accessibility of Your PDF

Once you’ve taken steps to make your PDF accessible, it’s important to verify that it actually is accessible. Here’s how to run an accessibility check on your PDF using Adobe Acrobat:

1. Open the PDF you want to check.
2. Click “Tools” in the toolbar and select “Accessibility” from the dropdown menu.
3. Select “Full Check” under the “Accessibility” toolbar.
4. Once the check is complete, review the report and make any necessary changes.

Running an accessibility check helps you to identify any potential accessibility issues in your PDF, so you can make the necessary changes to ensure that it’s accessible to all users.

Common Accessibility Issues and How to Fix Them

Despite your best efforts, sometimes accessibility issues still arise in your PDFs. Here are some common accessibility issues and how to fix them:

1. Missing alt text: Add alt text to any images in your document that don’t have it.

2. Improperly tagged headings: Make sure that headings are properly tagged and nested in the correct order.

3. Inaccessible table formatting: Format your tables correctly and add appropriate headings and summaries.

4. Unclear language: Use plain language whenever possible to ensure that your content is easily understood by all users.

By fixing these common accessibility issues, you can further improve the accessibility of your PDF documents and make them available to a wider audience.

Conclusion

By making your PDF documents accessible, you’re ensuring that they can be accessed and understood by a wider range of people, including those with visual impairments who rely on screen readers. By following the tips outlined in this article, you can make your PDF documents more inclusive and improve their visibility on search engines. Remember, accessibility isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s a necessary aspect of creating content that’s useful to all people.

Best Practices for Making a PDF Accessible

Making your PDF document accessible for individuals with disabilities is not just a one-time effort, but a continuous process. The best way to ensure accessibility is to plan ahead, design, and create with accessibility in mind. Here are some best practices when it comes to making a PDF accessible.

Use Document Structure Properly

Using proper document structure is key to making a PDF document accessible. This can be done by using headings for sections and sub-sections and using lists for items. By following these basic rules, you allow assistive technology like screen readers to read the document in a logical way that makes sense to the reader.

Provide Alt Text and Descriptions for Images and Graphics

Images and graphics in a PDF document should have alternative text (alt text) and descriptions. Alt text is a brief description of the image or graphic that can be read by screen readers, while the description provides a more detailed description for those with visual impairments.

Use Accessible Fonts and Colors

The use of fonts and colors is important for making your PDF document accessible. Sans-serif fonts are considered more readable, and colors should have enough contrast to be legible. Avoid using small font sizes and keep in mind that individuals with colorblindness may find certain color combinations difficult to read.

Make Links and Navigation Accessible

Navigating a PDF document should be easy for everyone. This can be achieved by making sure that all links and navigation are accessible. Use descriptive link text that explains where the link will take the reader. Additionally, ensure that the document has a clear table of contents, headings and bookmarks for ease of navigation.

Use Table Structures Wisely

Tables are a valuable tool for organizing information. However, when using tables in PDF documents, it is important to use them wisely. Ensure that tables have clear headings that are easy to understand and that column and row headers are properly labeled. Tables should be designed in such a way that assistive technologies can read the information correctly.

In conclusion, creating accessible PDF documents is essential to ensure equal access for individuals with disabilities. Following these best practices for document structure, images and graphics, fonts and colors, links and navigation, and table structures will go a long way in increasing accessibility for all readers.

That’s it!

Now you know how to make a PDF accessible. It’s a great practice to make sure that everyone, including people with disabilities, has access to your information. Thanks for reading this article, I hope you found it helpful! Don’t forget to come back and visit us again for more tips and guides. Take care and keep learning!