Skip to Page Content
CATEA Home
About GRADE
Accesselearning Tutorial
Course Design Models
Fact Sheets
Guidelines: Accessible
 Distance Education
Leadership Institute
Lunch & Learn Series
Training Events
Resources

Guidelines: Accessible Adobe PDF Files



Categories: Must SHOULD May

The "Should Items" can make access to online materials significantly easier.

 

  1. When creating accessible PDFs from a Microsoft Office program, make sure the original file was created in version 2000 or better.Microsoft Office 2000 allows PDF documents to be tagged, drastically increasing the amount of accessible content one can implement in the document. Office 97, on the other hand, does not allow for tagged PDF documents, and thus hinders making the document accessible.

  2. The latest Adobe Acrobat available should be used to create PDFs.The new versions of Adobe Acrobat have increasingly more accessibility features that can be implemented in the document, thus making it easier for assistive devices to recognize, and making the creation of accessible files quicker and more efficient.

  3. Include page numbers and a heading about what the current page says at the top of the page.Creating a header at the top of every page that contains the page number and a title for the topic on the page allows users using assistive devices to quickly browse the pages in order to find the one that is needed, instead of having to read the entire page to understand what it is about.

  4. Group similar illustrations together into one illustration using the Group command.The Group command in Acrobat 5.0 and later allows similar images to be grouped into a "category" that allows for one entry of alternative text, instead of many entries for alternative text. This prevents a screen reader from having to read many alternative texts about the same, or similar, images.

  5. Lists must be structured correctly using tags.Lists must be structured in such a way that a List structure contains List Item elements, List Item elements only contain Label elements and List Item Body elements. This helps assistive technologies such as screen readers to recognize when a list appears and when list items appear.

  6. Provide a short description for every form field.For every field that requires input, make sure to add a short description using the tags that are provided in Acrobat. This helps a user using an assistive device to understand what the input field is asking for if the label for the field is not in the immediate vicinity.

  7. Use Acrobat 6.0 or Acrobat Capture 3.0 when making scanned text accessible.Acrobat 6.0 and Acrobat Capture 3.0 both have tools for turning scanned text into computer text, which thus allows that text to be tagged and read by a screen reader.


Top of Page