Across courses, my annotated rulings often need accessibility fixes and students ask for clearer citation anchors. Ide…
Open the PDF document you want to check for accessibility.
Click the Tools tab at the top of the Acrobat window.
Scroll through the list and select Accessibility to add the Accessibility tools to your workspace if they are not already visible.
Best practiceIf you do not see the Accessibility tools, you may need to add them from the Tools pane as they are not shown by default.
In the Accessibility tools pane, click Full Check.
In the Accessibility Checker Options dialog, review the settings and click Start Checking.
Best practiceFor a thorough check, ensure all checkboxes are selected before starting the check.
Review the results displayed in the Accessibility Checker panel on the left side of the screen.
You can right-click in the Navigation Pane to show the Accessibility tags panel for more detailed tag inspection.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
| Standard | Focus | When it matters |
|---|---|---|
| PDF/UA | Specific to PDF documents, ensuring they are technically accessible. | When you need to meet a specific PDF standard for legal or industry requirements. |
| WCAG | General guidelines for web content accessibility, applies to all technologies. | When your work needs to meet broad accessibility laws, often alongside PDF/UA. |
Fixing the original document, like a Word file, is much better because it saves time and effort. When the source is accessible, any PDF exported from it will also be accessible from the start. This avoids the long and difficult task of fixing an already created PDF, which is called remediation.
Yes, even scanned lecture handouts can be made accessible. Acrobat's 'Automatically tag PDF' feature works for both native and scanned PDFs. It uses smart technology to identify text and structure, helping you start the accessibility process.
Reading order is the sequence in which a screen reader or other assistive technology reads the content of a PDF. It's very important because if the order is wrong, a user might hear text read out of sequence or miss important information. You need to check and fix it manually to ensure a logical flow for everyone.