We continually patch accessibility after release rather than building it into authoring. Diagnose where authoring fail…
Open your PDF document in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Go to the Tools tab and add the Accessibility tools to your workspace if they are not already present.
Best practiceYou can customize your workspace to keep accessibility tools handy for repeated use.
Select Accessibility from the Tools pane, then run Full Check to identify issues.
Review the Accessibility Checker panel's results and expand each issue to see details.
Right-click on an issue and choose Fix if available, or select Explain for guidance.
NoteSome issues can be fixed automatically, but many require manual remediation.
For reading order issues, open the Reading Order panel from the left Navigation pane and drag items to the correct sequence.
Best practiceUse the Reading Order panel to visually confirm and adjust the logical reading sequence for screen readers.
For tag issues, right-click in the Navigation pane and enable the Tags panel, then edit, add, or rearrange tags as needed.
Best practiceRenaming tags with F2 can help clarify structure for assistive technologies.
To add or edit alternative text, right-click images in the Tags panel and choose Properties, then enter descriptive alt text.
NoteAlt text is essential for non-text content to be accessible to screen readers.
For headings, ensure heading tags (such as H1, H2) are applied to section titles in the Tags panel; right-click and change tag type if needed.
After making changes, rerun the Full Check to confirm all issues are resolved.
Best practiceIteratively check and fix until no critical issues remain.
You can right-click on specific accessibility checker results to get explanations or attempt automatic fixes directly from the panel.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are general rules for all digital content. PDF/UA (PDF/Universal Accessibility) are specific rules just for PDFs. For official work, you might need to meet both sets of rules. PDF/UA helps make sure the PDF itself is structured correctly, while WCAG covers a broader range of accessibility needs.
Fixing accessibility in the original file (like a Word document) saves a lot of time and effort. If the source is accessible, then any PDF you create from it will likely be accessible too. This means you won't have to spend hours fixing the PDF later, especially if you make many PDFs from the same source. It's more efficient to build accessibility in from the start.
Yes, even scanned PDFs can be made accessible. Acrobat's 'Automatically tag PDF' tool uses smart technology to recognize text and structure in scanned documents. It can tag headings, tables, lists, and paragraphs. However, you will still need to manually check and fix things like reading order and add alt text for any images, as automation might not be perfect for complex scans.
The Accessibility Checker is a tool in Acrobat that scans your PDF for common accessibility problems. It flags issues like missing alt text, incorrect reading order, or problems with headings. After it finds these issues, it helps you fix them so your PDF meets accessibility standards. It's an important step to make sure your document is usable for everyone.