EIGHT ESSENTIALS FOR
CREATING ACCESSIBLE
PDF DOCUMENTS
California State University Fullerton
Campus Information Technology Training
Timothy Benbow
STEP ONE: BOOKMARK YOUR CONTENT
 Bookmark your documents.
Creating bookmarks in your document makes it easy to access
the chapters/sections of your document and for a reader to
understand the overall scope of the document and the way the
information is organized.
Bookmarked titles should be marked with the appropriate
level H (heading) tag.
Heading in Microsoft Word documents will be automatically
made into bookmarks in your PDF
STEP TWO: CREATE ARTICLES
 Create Articles
Documents like newsletters have articles in them that skip
from page to page. These kinds of documents are especially
dif ficult for individuals using screen readers or alternative
input devices.
Defining articles in your PDF document allows someone to
follow the article through the document without having to
manually skip from page to page.
STEP THREE: READING ORDER
 Reading Order.
Sometime the content in PDF documents is read out of order
by screen readers. This is especially true of documents
containing columns.
Fixing the reading order of the document will ensure that the
content is presented by a screen reader in the correct order.
STEP FOUR: USE SEMANTIC TAGS
 Semantic Tags.
Content must be properly tagged so that a screen reader can
know what kind of information the content represents.
This includes headers, body text, lists, images, backgrounds,
and tables.
 Documents created with Microsoft Word that are formatted
correctly will be tagged correctly
STEP FIVE: TEXT DESCRIPTIONS
 Alternative text descriptions for images.
Where the content is an image that conveys information to
the reader, an alternative text description should be used to
provide the information to the screen reader user.
For complex images that require an explanation of more than
255 characters, an appendix can be notated and used.
STEP SIX: WORKING LINKS
 Working Links
If your document contains links, for example to a website
(HTTP link) or to a location within the document (Anchor link),
the links must work.
This includes links in the table of contents for a document
and any foot or end notes you have used.
STEP SEVEN: COLOR AND CONTRAST
 Color
Color cannot be the only way information is conveyed to a
reader. For example, if you have a chart in your document, the
legend cannot simply have “red” as the color identifying a
column. There must be a second visual clue for the reader for
example using a “checkerboard” pattern on the column.
 Contrast
If you use background colors or images, there should be
ample contrast between the background and foreground text
STEP EIGHT: FONTS AND SPACING
 Fonts, Sizing and Spacing
Are the fonts you are using clear and legible? Avoid using
fancy fonts that are more decorative than functional.
The body text in your document should be big enough so that
it does not present a problem for individuals with limited
vision. Usually this means font sizes between 10 and 14
points
The spacing in the document should be enough to show
paragraph breaks clearly. Spacing between lines should be at
least 120% of the fonts size. The is the default in Word.
EIGHT STEPS TO
CREATING ACCESSIBLE
PDF DOCUMENTS
California State University Fullerton
Campus Information Technology Training
Timothy Benbow