PDF Documentation

Should You Use PDF?

HTML is the recommended format for accessibility..
Provide two versions if PDFs are required. HTML for online viewing, and tagged PDF for print. (This method will require extra work in order to maintain information in several locations. Remember to update any accessibility optimizations if the original document was altered.)

Accessibility Checker

Acrobat has a built in accessibility checker that makes it easier to create accessible PDFs or check the accessibility of existing PDFs. Automated checkers are a great guidance tool but are far from perfect, manual review is still required to ensure documents are fully accessible. The Accessibility Tool lets you do the following:

Make PDFs accessible: A predefined action automates many tasks, checks accessibility, and provides instructions for items that require manual fixes. Quickly find and fix problem areas.

Check accessibility: The Full Check tool verifies whether the document conforms to accessibility standards, such as PDF/UA and WCAG 2.0.

Report accessibility status: The Accessibility Report summarizes the findings of the accessibility check. It contains links to tools and documentation that assist in fixing problems.

To access the Accessibility Tool, go to Tools Tab > Protect & Standardize > Accessibility, then the Accessibility pane will show in the original document.

Optimize the Original Document

Use real headings (e.g. using styles in Word, InDesign, etc.), real lists, add alt text to images, designate table headers in data tables, and other accessibility techniques.
Convert scanned documents to real text with OCR in Acrobat Pro. (View > Tools > Text Recognition > In This File, then run the “Find All Suspects.”)

Save as Tagged PDF Document

In Word or PowerPoint: Select the “Acrobat” tab, then select Create PDF. (The Acrobat tab is available only on Windows, and only after installing Acrobat Pro.)
In InDesign: File > Export > Format: Adobe PDF (interactive).

Add Metadata

Add a Title: File > Properties > Description > Title.
Ensure Title is read: File > Properties > Initial View > Show > Document Title.
Specify the language: File > Properties > Advanced > Language.

Fine Tune Tags

Caution: There is no undo feature when modifying tags!

Activate the “Tags” Pane: View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Tags.
If Tag Pane says, “No tags available,” add tags to the document. (Right click on “No tags available” > Add Tags to Document)
Turn on “Highlight Content” to see where the tagged items are in the document. (Right click on any tag > Highlight Content)
Correct any incorrect tags: Click on the tag to select it, click it again to make it editable, then change the value (e.g. change <P> to <H1> or <TD> to <TH>).
Headings should be marked with <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc.
Add tags to any untagged elements (unless they are decorative or unimportant).
Activate the “Accessibility” sidebar (Tools Tab > Accessibility).
Open the “Touch Up Reading Order” dialog box (in the “Accessibility” sidebar).
Select the item (e.g. an image or a paragraph) by dragging a box around it.
Assign a tag to the item by selecting the appropriate type of tag in the “Touch Up Reading Order” dialog (Text, Figure, Heading 1, Table, etc.).
Delete empty or unnecessary tags: Right-click on the tag > Delete Tag.

Caution: There is no undo (but you can add tags back in using the instructions above).

Images should be marked as <Figure> and should have alt text. (Right click on the tag > Properties > Tag > Alternate Text.)
Data tables should have header cells <TH>, similar to HTML tables.
Multi-dimensional tables require giving IDs to each header cell and associating each data cell with the corresponding header cells:

Activate the “Accessibility” sidebar (Tools Tab > Accessibility).
Open the “Touch Up Reading Order” dialog box (in the “Accessibility” sidebar)
Click on the number in the upper left corner of the data table in the document.
Select “Table Editor” in the “Touch Up Reading Order” dialog box.
Assign IDs to the header cells: For each table header cell, right click on the cell, select “Table cell properties” and type an ID (make it easy to remember).
Associate the header cells with the data cells: For each data cell, right click on the cell, select “Table cell properties,” click on the “+” button, and select the corresponding header cell IDs for that data cell.

Rearrange the tags if necessary: drag the tag to the desired location in the Tag pane.

Fine Tune the Reading Order

Screen readers will read the content in the order shown in the “Order” Pane.

Activate the “Order” Pane: View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Order.
Drag and drop items in the “Order” Pane to rearrange them, if necessary.

Set the Tab Order

In the Page Thumbnails Pane, select all the thumbnails.
Right-click on a thumbnail > Page Properties. Set Tab Order to “Use document structure.”

Tag Reference

Most PDF tags map to equivalent HTML elements, but there are a few exceptions, as noted in the table below.

PDF Tag	Description	Equivalent HTML Tag
Art	Article element. A self-contained body of text considered to be a single narrative.	<article>
Annot	Annotation. A comment, note, or other annotation added by a document editor after the document was published.	none
BibEntry	Bibliography Entry element. A description of where some cited information may be found.	none
BlockQuote	Block Quote element. One or more paragraphs of text attributed to someone other than the author of the immediate surrounding text.	<blockquote>
Caption	Caption element. A brief portion of text that describes a table or a figure.	<caption> (for tables), <figcaption> (for images and other objects in <figure>)
Code	Code element. Computer program text embedded within a document.	<code>
Div	Division element. A generic block-level element or group of block-level elements.	<div>
Document	Document element. The root element of a document’s tag tree.	<html>
Figure	Figure element. A graphic or graphic representation associated with text.	<img> (for regular images), <figure> (for images and other objects, usually paired with <figcaption>)
Form	Form element. A PDF form annotation that can be or has been filled out.	<form>
Formula	Formula element. A mathematical formula.	<math> (in MathML)
H	Heading. A generic heading that inherits its level based on the nested structure of the document.	none
H1	Heading Level 1	<h1>
H2	Heading Level 2	<h2>
H3	Heading Level 3	<h3>
H4	Heading Level 4	<h4>
H5	Heading Level 5	<h5>
H6	Heading Level 6	<h6>
Index	Index element. A sequence of entries that contain identifying text and reference elements that point out the occurrence of the text in the main body of the document.	none
Lbl	Label element. A bullet, name, or number that identifies and distinguishes an element from others in the same list.	none
Link	Link element. A hyperlink that is embedded within a document. The target can be in the same document, in another PDF document, or on a website.	<a>
L	List element. Any sequence of items of similar meaning or other relevance; immediate child elements should be list item elements.	<ul> for unordered lists or <ol> for ordered lists or <dl> for definition lists
LI	List Item element. Any one member of a list; may have a label element (optional) and a list body element (required) as a child.	<li>
LBody	List Item Body element. The descriptive content of a list item.	none
Note	Note element. Explanatory text or documentation, such as a footnote or endnote, that is referred to in the main body of text.	<note>
P	Paragraph	<p>
Part	Part element. A large division of a document; may group smaller units of content together, such as division elements, article elements, or section elements.	<section>
Quote	Quote element. An inline portion of text that is attributed to someone other than the author of the text surrounding it; different from a block quote, which is a whole paragraph or multiple paragraphs, as opposed to inline text.	<q>
Reference	Reference element. A citation to text or data that is found elsewhere in the document.	href attribute of the <a>element
Sect	Section element. A general container element type, comparable to Division (div class="sect") in HTML, which is usually a component of a part element or an article element.	<section>
Span	Span element. Any inline segment of text; commonly used to delimit text that is associated with a set of styling properties.	<span>
Table	Table element. A two-dimensional arrangement of data or text cells that contains table row elements as child elements and may have a caption element as its first or last child element.	<table>
TD	Table Data Cell element. A table cell that contains nonheader data.	<td>
TH	Table Header Cell element. A table cell that contains header text or data describing one or more rows or columns of a table.	<th>
TOC	Table of Contents element. An element that contains a structured list of items and labels identifying those items; has its own discrete hierarchy.	none
TOCI	Table of Contents Item element. An item contained in a list associated with a table of contents element.	none
TR	Table Row element. One row of headings or data in a table; may contain table header cell elements and table data cell elements.	<tr>

Created 05/01/18 by Edward Pritchard (edward.pritchard@domail.maricopa.edu) - Information sourced from Deque Systems, Inc and Deque University

Accessiblity