Making PDF Accessible with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro

Introduction

PDF Accessibility

A document or application is accessible if it can be used by people with disabilities—such as mobility

impairments, blindness, and low vision—and not just by people who can see well and use a mouse.

Accessibility features in Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Reader, and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) make

it easier for people with disabilities to use PDF documents and forms, with or without the aid of assistive

software and devices such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, and braille printers.

Making PDFs accessible tends to benefit all users. For example, the underlying document structure that

makes it possible for a screen reader to properly read a PDF out loud also makes it possible for a mobile

device to correctly reflow and display the document on a small screen. Similarly, the preset tab order of an

accessible PDF form helps all users—not just users with mobility impairments—fill the form more easily.

Each PDF File is Different

Not all PDFs are the same. PDF files are created in a variety of ways, from a variety of applications, and for a

variety of purposes. In addition to applying the proper accessibility enhancements to PDF documents,

achieving your accessibility goals for an individual PDF file requires understanding the nature of the PDF

and the uses for which it is intended.

Using this guide, you will learn how to assess existing PDF files for certain characteristics which influence

their accessibility. The order in which this assessment is conducted is important. By following these

procedures in the recommended order, users can efficiently proceed through the analysis of a PDF file in a

systematic fashion. Systematically ruling out or confirming certain characteristics which a PDF file may

possess will guide you to the most appropriate next step for making an individual PDF accessible (See

“Acrobat 9 Pro PDF Accessibility Repair Workflow” on page 5).

This guide also discusses techniques for converting source files to accessible PDF. Using the Adobe

PDFMaker with Microsoft Word as an example, this guide provides best practices for designing your source

document with accessibility in mind so that the original document can be efficiently transformed into an

accessible PDF version (See “Creating Accessible PDF Files Using Authoring Applications” on page 53).

Note:

These Best Practices techniques assume the user has access to Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 or

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended for Windows. Adobe Reader 9 and Adobe Acrobat 9

Standard do not have the complete set of tools needed to create and validate PDF

documents for accessibility.

Two Workflows for Creating Accessible PDF Files

The PDF format is a destination file format. PDF files are typically created in some other application. What

this means is that the author who is concerned with PDF accessibility will be confronted with one of two

situations:

• Individuals working with an existing PDF file will want to know how to edit/update it to be

an accessible PDF file.

• Authors will want to know how to use some other software application, such as a word processing

or desktop publishing application, to generate an accessible PDF file from that application if

possible.

Making an Existing PDF File Accessible

“Acrobat 9 Pro PDF Accessibility Repair Workflow” on page 5 provides a step-by-step approach for

analyzing PDF files and making them accessible based upon that analysis.

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