Review three previous accessible summaries and the original technical reports to identify the recurring trade-offs we …
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.
Auto-tagging helps by automatically identifying and labeling the different parts of your PDF, such as headings, paragraphs, and lists. This structure is crucial for screen readers, which use these tags to make sense of the document and read it aloud in the correct order. While it's a great start, you still need to manually verify the results.
| Feature | PDF/UA | WCAG |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Specific to PDF documents | General guidelines for all web content |
| Requirement | PDF-specific standard for accessible PDFs | Technology-agnostic standard for web accessibility |
| Usage | Ensures technical accessibility of the PDF file itself | Ensures content is accessible regardless of technology |
It's better to fix accessibility in the source document because changes made there will carry over when you export to PDF. This saves a lot of time and effort. If you fix the source, you create an accessible PDF from the start, rather than spending many hours trying to fix an untagged PDF later. It's more efficient and prevents future problems.
Yes, Acrobat can help make a scanned PDF accessible. The Sensei-powered auto-tagging API works for both native and scanned PDFs. It can identify elements like headings and paragraphs even in scanned documents. However, scanned documents often need more manual checking and correction, especially for reading order and alt text, because the initial quality might be lower.
Fixing reading order means making sure that a screen reader reads the content of your PDF in the correct, logical sequence. Sometimes, especially with complex layouts, the default order might be wrong. You need to adjust it so that the text flows naturally, like a person would read it, from top to bottom and left to right.