Across the last [N=30] transcription corrections I made, identify the most common source of errors: poor scan quality,…
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.
| Standard | Focus | Applicability |
|---|---|---|
| PDF/UA | Specific to PDF documents, ensuring technical accessibility features. | Used when PDF-specific technical compliance is required, often with WCAG. |
| WCAG | General guidelines for web content accessibility, technology-agnostic. | A broader standard for all digital content, including PDFs, often legally required. |
It is much better to fix accessibility problems in the original file, like a Word document. When you export an accessible Word file to PDF, the PDF will already have good structure and tags. This saves a lot of time and effort compared to fixing an untagged PDF later, which can be very time-consuming.
Yes, Acrobat's 'Automatically tag PDF' tool uses smart technology to tag scanned PDFs. It can find headings, tables, lists, and paragraphs. However, you will still need to check and fix the reading order and alt text manually.
The 'reading order' is the order in which a screen reader or other assistive technology reads the content on a page. It matters because if the reading order is wrong, a user might hear parts of the document in a confusing or illogical sequence. You must check and fix this manually to ensure a good experience.