| 63 Creating Accessible PDF Files Using Authoring Applications
Changes to the Conversion Settings
Some repairs will involve changes to the PDFMaker conversion settings. If, for example, your final check
indicated that the PDF file was not tagged, you would need to verify that the Enable Accessibility and Reflow
box was checked in the PDFMaker tabbed settings.
Repairs You Should Make in the Source File
Some repairs can be made on the PDF file, but they would be erased the next time a PDF file was created
from the same source. A good example is missing alternative text descriptions. You can certainly use the
Touchup Reading Order Tool in Acrobat to add these to a PDF file, but if you want the change to last during
updates to the file, it is better to add the alternative text in the Word document using the format picture
dialog (See “Add Alternative Text to Word Graphics and Images” on page 51).
Repairs You Should Make in the PDF File
Some repairs must take place on the PDF file using Adobe Acrobat 9.
Document Language
In some instances, even if the document language has been specified in the source file, the information about
document language is not conveyed to the PDFMaker. Setting the language for an entire document in the
Document Properties dialog box corrects all errors related to this option.
• Select File > Properties (Ctrl + D)
• In the Language drop down of the Reading Options section choose the appropriate language for the
document.
Tab Order is Consistent with Structure Order
In some instances, even though the tags have been inherited from the source file, the Accessibility Checker
will indicate that tab order is inconsistent with structure order. To correct this issue, do the following:
• Open the Pages icon or select View > Navigation Panels > Pages (ALT + VNP)
• Click on any page icon and type Cntrl + A (Command + A for the Mac OS) to select all the pages
• From the Options button on the pages panel select “Page Properties”
• In the Tab Order Panel, check “Use Document Structure”
Establish Table Headings for Tables
Table headers are not always properly defined after the conversion from Microsoft Word to PDF. Use the
TouchUp Reading Order Table Editor to change table data cells that should be table headings to table
headers or change the TD tags directly into TH tags within the tags panel.
Making PDF Accessible with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro