Adobe Acrobat – Guidelines for Accessible PDFs

A PDF allows limited editing of the document once it is created and maintains the predefined layout of text and images. Most PDF documents are created via Microsoft Word and then exported to Adobe acrobat. For more on these areas click on this link creating a PDF document.

Converting to PDF:

From Word:

• ensure the Word document follows the accessibility guidelines for Word documents
• once the MS Word guidlines are followed convert using Adobe Professional to ensure accessibility features are maintained.

From a scanned a document:

• ensure you use optical character recognition software (OCR)

When using a graphic designer for a publication:

• raise the College accessibility policy as applied to PDFs with the designer.

Building accessibility within PDFs:

• tag the PDF layout correctly
• define headings
• give Alt text to images.

For more click on this link building an accessible PDF document

Checking accessibility in existing PDFs:

• run the document through Accessibility Checker,

For more click on this link Checking Accessibility in Existing PDF's

Video Tutorial on PDF Accessibility

This is a general overview of how to create accessible PDFs and how to check and edit existing PDFs for accessibility (length 5m 13s).