We have a two-day onboarding course with PDF handouts that are not accessible. I need an accessible version ready by M…
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.
PDF/UA is a specific standard just for PDF documents, focusing on how the PDF itself is built for accessibility. WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is a broader set of guidelines for all kinds of digital content, not just PDFs. Many regulated jobs need to follow both, as WCAG gives general rules and PDF/UA gives specific PDF rules.
Tagging is the most important step for PDF accessibility because tags create a hidden structure in the document. This structure tells screen readers what each part of the document is (like a heading, paragraph, or list). Without tags, a screen reader cannot understand the content and will just read a jumbled mess, making the PDF unusable for many people.
Remediating an existing untagged PDF can be very time-consuming. You will need to manually add tags, correct the reading order, and add alt text for images. While Acrobat has tools to help, it's often more work than creating an accessible PDF from the start. It's best to fix the original source document (like a Word file) before exporting to PDF.
The best approach is to make your source document accessible first. For example, if you create a document in Microsoft Word, use its built-in heading styles, add alt text to images, and create proper lists. When you then export this document to PDF, many of these accessibility features will carry over, saving you a lot of work in Acrobat.