Making PDFs
Accessible
Terrill Thompson
tft@uw.edu
http://staff.washington.edu/tft
@terrillthompson
An Informal Survey
• Google search:
– “Purdue filetype:pdf site:purdue.edu”
• Randomly selected 20 PDFs
• Selected PDFs from different sub-domains
Results...
Results
•
•
•
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17 of 20 (85%) are not tagged
3 of 20 (15%) are tagged
0 of 3 tagged PDFs is fully accessible
Only 1 of 6 PDFs created with Adobe
PDFMaker is tagged (accessibility is enabled
by default in PDFMaker)
Maybe the glass is empty after all
Conclusion
• PDF Accessibility is a major problem
• It is not difficult to create a tagged PDF
• Therefore, the problem is likely caused by lack
of awareness
• The problem could be addressed by:
– Massive educational effort
– Stronger policies
It is not difficult to create an
accessible tagged PDF
What makes an electronic
document accessible?
• Text alternatives for non-text content
• Information, structure, & relationships
• HTML, Word, & PDF all support these
features
Adobe PDF
• Three general types:
– Image
– Image with embedded fonts
– Tagged (optimized for accessibility)
To Create an Accessible PDF
• Use an authoring tool that supports:
– Creating documents with headings &
subheadings
– Adding alt text to images
– Exporting to tagged PDF
• Use these accessibility features anytime
you create a document
In Word, Add Alt Text to Images
In Word, Use Heading Styles
Export to Tagged PDF
• Use “Save as…” > “PDF”
– In Microsoft Word and PowerPoint 2010
(Windows only)
– Beware the “Minimize Size” button
• Use Adobe PDFMaker plug-in
– In Microsoft Word and PowerPoint prior to
2010 (Windows only)
– Adds an Adobe menu & toolbar to Word
– Installed automatically with Adobe Acrobat
Other Authoring Tools that support
Tagged PDF
•
•
•
•
•
•
Adobe InDesign
Open Office
LibreOffice
Corel Word Perfect
Lotus Symphony
Maybe a few others:
– http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/2011AprJun/0061.html
With Adobe Acrobat, you can
make an accessible PDF from
an inaccessible one
PDF Accessibility Repair
(General) Workflow
1.
2.
3.
4.
Recognize text (if needed)
Tag document (if needed)
Touch up reading order, alt text, etc.
Touch up structure
– especially, add or modify headings
5. Create links from URLs
6. Specify language
7. Do a full accessibility check
PDF Forms
• Use Adobe Acrobat Pro to add or edit forms
interactivity
• Key accessibility goals:
– Tab order is correct
– All fields have labels (tooltips)
– All checkboxes have tooltips that include the overall
group prompt
– All radio buttons have the same name, a tooltip for
the full set of buttons, and a meaningful button value
for each option
– Colors are used to provide clear visual indication of
focus
• Markup the form fields first. Then add tags.
Adobe LiveCycle Designer
• Build forms from scratch
• Key accessibility goals are the same as
with any PDF forms
• Start with a blank document (don’t use a
template – they’re not accessible)
• Careful: Tags can’t be edited later with
Acrobat Pro!
Where to Learn More
• Adobe Accessibility
– http://adobe.com/accessibility
• WebAIM on PDF Accessibility
– http://www.webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/
• California State University PDF Tutorials
– http://tinyurl.com/y2dnyl2
• Karen McCall’s book
– http://www.karlencommunications.com/products.
htm
• WebAIM Discussion List
– http://webaim.org/discussion/