Making PDF Accessible with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro

Acrobat 9 Pro PDF Accessibility

Repair Workflow

PDF Accessibility Workflow Summary

At a high level, the process of making existing PDF files accessible consists of a few basic steps:

1. Analyze and evaluate the PDF document before you (See “Step 1: Analyze the PDF File” on

page 5).

2. Determine if the PDF file originated from a scan. If so, perform Optical Character Recognition

(OCR) using the OCR Text Recognition command in Adobe Acrobat 9 (See “Step 2: Determine if

the PDF is a Scanned Document” on page 5).

3. Add fillable form fields and buttons with short descriptions if the PDF file is intended to work as an

interactive document. Set the tab order for the form field (See “Step 3: Add Interactive Features:

Form Fields and Buttons” on page 8).

4. Add other accessibility features to the PDF such as bookmarks and security that does not interfere

with assistive technology (See “Step 4: Add Other Accessibility Features” on page 16).

5. Add tags to the PDF if it has not been tagged (See “Step 5: Determine if the PDF File is a Tagged

PDF File” on page 20).

6. Determine if the PDF file has been properly tagged (See “Step 6: Determine if the PDF File is

Properly Tagged” on page 23).

7. Use the Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro accessibility checker to evaluate the PDF and repair tagging problems

and other issues such as missing alternate text descriptions, missing short descriptions for form

fields, and improper read order. Run the accessibility checker and follow its suggestions for repair

until no problems are found (See “Step 7: Use the Accessibility Checker to Evaluate the PDF File”

on page 44).

Though these stages are presented in an order that suits most needs, you may perform tasks in these stages in

a different order or iterate between some of the stages. In all cases, you should first examine the document,

determine its intended purpose, and use that analysis to determine the workflow that you should apply.

Step 1: Analyze the PDF File

When you open the PDF file, take a moment to analyze the document before you. Take a moment to note its

characteristics.

• Is it a short document with a small number of pages or a long document consisting of many pages?

• Is the document mostly text or a mixture of text and graphics?

• Does the document appear to have form fields?

• Another item to note is the complexity of the document’s layout. In some instances, documents of

shorter length may be more challenging from an accessibility perspective than longer docments

because their layout and read order are more complex. Is the layout simple, a single column with a

limited number of graphics, or is it complex with multiple columns, mixed layouts, tables and many

graphics? Complex layouts are an indicator that you may be spending more time with the

document doing more detailed accessibility enhancements with the Touch Up Read Order Tool.

Step 2: Determine if the PDF is a Scanned Document

A common method for making PDF documents is to place a paper copy of a document into a scanner and

then opening the resulting electronic version using Adobe Acrobat to view the newly scanned document as a

PDF file. Unfortunately, this process results in creating an image of text and not the actual text itself. This

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