PDF Accessibility Checklist

Introduction

This checklist is meant to guide you in remediating PDFs to improve accessibility following WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1 AA, with which ADA Title II Regulations will be updated to align starting April 2027.

In this instance, accessibility means that anyone can use your documents, including people with blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, and combinations of these (WCAG 2.1) in addition to those who live in areas with limited bandwidth.

Please note that this list will support you in technically making PDFs more accessible using Adobe Acrobat Pro. However, there will be instances in which making things more functionally accessible will require more fundamental changes (e.g., designing a teaching activity to achieve outcomes for students regardless of disability).

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Checklist

Original Document

This checklist assumes that you have a PDF you created digitally as opposed to a scan of a physical document that you have turned into a PDF. The best way to incorporate accessibility into your PDF is to build it into your original file format. We also recommend using hte original file format whenever possible as saving as a PDF does not always ensure accessibility is maintained.

If you have your original Word document or PowerPoint document, SERC has both a Word Accessibility Checklist and a PowerPoint Accessibility Checklist. In the event that you don't have your original document, apply this checklist which is is organized by topic. You may work through the topics one-by-one or use the buttons below to jump to specific sections to apply to your Word doc as needed.

Checker Tool Document Structure Tag Headings & Text Hyperlinks  Images Text Appearance Color Reading Order References and Footnotes Tables & Lists Additional Resources

Accessibility Checker and Automated Tools

You can run Adobe Acrobat's accessibility checker, which is under 'All tools' and then 'Prepare for accessibility'. The checker itself should be called "Check for accessibility." If your document fails different accessibility requirements, the checker may allow you to use automated tools to update your document (e.g., Automatically Tag PDF). However, note that using the automated tools will result in inaccurate tags, missed elements, and a misordered reading order, so you will still need to manually check and update the document. In other words, it is arduous to correctly remediate a PDF for accessibility without your original document, whether you start from the automated features or manually.

Document Structure

• Create an accurate and concise internal title that describes the topic and/or purpose of the document.
  • Update the internal title in 'Document Properties' which is typically found under 'File'.
  • A student handout for an activity may be titled something such as the course name and the activity name or the content and 'student handout.'
• Ensure the document language is correctly identified.
  • Check that the language is correct on the 'Advanced' page in 'Document Properties', which can be found under 'File'.
• Create a Tags Root and a 'Document' tag if not already present under the Accessibility Tags menu.
  • Tags are the mechanism that makes your document readable to users with screenreaders. There are different types of tags that you will use for the different elements of your document. This will be the bulk of your remediation tasks.
  • Navigate to the Accessibility Tags menu, which is found on the right-hand side of the screen and symbolized by the outline of a paper tag. If you are unable to find the full righ-hand side menu, you will need to search 'Accessibility Tags' in the help bar in order to get it to appear.
  • Click the three dots or right-click 'No tags available' and select 'Create tags root' from the drop-down menu.
  • Then add a Document tag by again selecting the three dots or right-clicking 'Tags'. Select 'New Tag' and in the pop-up menu select 'Document'. Your documents should start with a 'Document' tag. You can add this at any time.

Tagging Headings and Text

• Use Accessibility Tags to identify your Heading, Paragraph Text, Figure, and Formula elements.
  • Headings, Paragraph Text, and Mathematical Formulas can be tagged under the Order menu, which is found on the right-hand side of the screen, symbolized by three squares connected by an arrow.
  • Once under this menu, click the three dots or right-click one of the elements in the menu and select 'Show reading order panel.' Your cursor will now resemble a crosshair with which you'll drag over the elements that you'll then tag in the pop-up reading order panel.
• Ensure headings are tagged in the proper order with none in the hierarchy skipped.
  • The heading tags (heading 1, heading 2, etc.) should appropriately match the way the content of each section of your document is nested. Note that your document should only have a single heading 1.
• Review the 'Text Appearance and Spacing' and the 'Color and Contrast' sections to format the appearance of your headings and text.
  • You will want to ensure that one may visually differentiate between paragraph text and different heading types, which will ensure your document is more accessible to those using sight to navigate the document.

Hyperlinking Text

• Create and tag links
  • Highlight the text you wish to hyperlink and right-click and select 'Create Link'. This should create three tags in your tag tree: 'Link' with 'Link - OBJ' and the hyperlinked text nested underneath.
  • In the 'Create Link' menu under 'Link Action' select open a web page and click next. In the 'Edit URL' menu displayed, enter your URL.
• Write accurate and concise hyperlinked text that describes the URL destination.
  • Avoid non-specific, non-descriptive, or redundant link text such as "click here" or "link" or "here," and consider the following questions.
    • How will the link text sound to someone using a screen reader with voiceover? Be clear and concise about where the link will take the user.
    • Does the link text make sense out of context? Often while navigating using a screen reader, users will read from link to link without the surrounding text.
    • WebAIM also provides additional insight into the ways screen reader users navigate links that may be helpful in choosing appropriate link text.
• Update the appearance of linked text to make the presence of a link visibly clearer and more accessible to users without screenreaders.
  • Standard practice is to underline the text and change the color to blue. To edit text appearance, navigate to 'Edit' in the Adobe Acrobat toolbar (not the global toolbar). Under the 'Add content' heading, select 'Text.'

Figures/Images

• Use Accessibility Tags to identify your Figure or image
  • Figures/Images can be tagged under the Order menu, which is found on the right-hand side of the screen, symbolized by three squares connected by an arrow. If your figure/image is decorative, tag it as 'Background/Artifact.'
  • Once under this menu, click the three dots or right-click one of the elements in the menu and select 'Show reading order panel.' Your cursor will now resemble a crosshair with which you'll drag over the figures/images that you'll then tag in the pop-up reading order panel.
• Write accurate and concise alt text for images or figures that describe the content or purpose and mark decorative images as 'decorative.'
  • After tagging figures/images, you can add alt text either through navigating to the 'Accessibility Tags' menu and right-clicking on the figure tag you are adding alt text to and selecting 'properties' in the drop-down menu or through 'prepare for accessibility' under the 'All tools' menu and selecting 'Add alternate text' (This is another area where you can mark figures as decorative, which will change their tag type to 'Background/Artifact.') Alt text is necessary to describe the content or the purpose of the image and will be present if the image fails to load or if the user uses a screen reader.
  • Do not duplicate caption text as alt text: either mark the image as decorative, or if not captured by the caption, describe the image's purpose (e.g., the emotions or thoughts it is meant to elicit and how)
  • You can read about what makes alt text effective in WebAIM's Alternative Text documentation.
  • Additionally, if you have particularly complex visualizations, do your best to provide alt text and flag these for the educator(s)/facilitator(s) so that they may know when/where to alter their use of your document in order to meet their students' needs.
• Share data tables for graphs and data visualizations.
  • These may be provided as a csv file or spreadsheet which could allow a visually impaired learner to dig deeper into a graph than whatever textual alternative is provided.
  • One way to achieve this is to attach these data files to your PDF. To do so, navigate to 'Edit' in the Adobe Acrobat toolbar (not the global toolbar). Under the 'Add content' heading, select 'Attach file.' Then select the file you are attaching in the pop-up menu.

Text Appearance and Spacing

To edit text, navigate to 'Edit' in the Adobe Acrobat toolbar (not the global toolbar). Under the 'Add content' heading, select 'Text.'

• Use fonts that are simple, familiar and easily-parsed.
  • Examples of such fonts include Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Veranda, Tahoma, and Times New Roman.
  • If you are considering accessibility for dyslexic readers, you might consider using a sans-serif, monospaced font.
• Create space with the internal line spacing tools rather than the return/enter key.
  • To adjust spacing in a particular section of your document, adjust the ''Line spacing,' 'Paragraph spacing after,' 'Horizontal scaling,' and 'Character spacing.'
  • If you wish to add space for students to respond to questions, one suggestion is to insert a textbox following the question and include directions to type their response in the following textbox.
  • Adjusting spacing following this method will decrease the likelihood that learners using screen readers will experience difficulties navigating your spacing.

Color and Contrast

To edit text, navigate to 'Edit' in the Adobe Acrobat toolbar (not the global toolbar). Under the 'Add content' heading, select 'Text.' Ensure that the text you are adjusting the color of is highlighted.

• Choose text, highlight, and background colors that have a sufficiently high contrast.
  • Use a tool such as the WebAIM Contrast Checker to check the contrast. If you click on the rectangle under 'Color Picker,' a pop-up menu provides you with an eyedrop tool, so you do not need to know the hex value. (If you are on a Windows machine, the eyedropper tool will only work outside your browser if you are using Chrome or Edge.)
  • For small fonts (smaller than 18 pt or bolded 14 pt), the contrast ratio should be 4.5:1 between text and its background/highlight.
  • For large fonts (larger than 18 pt or bolded 14 pt), the contrast ratio should be 3:1 between text and its background/highlight.
• Use other visual elements in addition to color to emphasize or differentiate text or objects.
  • For example, if you are differentiating some text using color, also bold it as this will be readable for those with colorblindness or those using screen readers.

Reading Order

• Order elements from first encountered to last encountered to ensure a comprehensible Reading Order
  • Navigate to the reading order menu symbolized of three squares connected by an arrow.
  • Reading order is the order in which the material in your document is read. Drag and drop the different tags to re-order or re-nest them as it will ensure that a user reading with a screen reader will encounter each element in your document in the order intended.
  • Another check for this is to show the 'Page content order' which is under the three dots and then 'show page content groups' under the drop-down menu. With this selected, the boxes around the content in your document will now show the number in which it is read by users with screen readers.

References and Footnotes

• Tag and link references and footnotes using Accessibility Tags and internal links
  • References and Footnotes under the Order menu, which is found on the right-hand side of the screen, symbolized by three squares connected by an arrow.
  • Once under this menu, click the three dots or right-click one of the elements in the menu and select 'Show reading order panel.' Your cursor will now resemble a crosshair with which you'll drag over the superscript in your text that you'll then tag in the pop-up reading order panel. Footnotes should be tagged as 'Note.'
• Create an internal link to the footnote or reference text
  • Highlight the text you wish to hyperlink and right-click and select 'Create Link'. This should create three tags in your tag tree: 'Link' with 'Link - OBJ' and the hyperlinked text nested underneath. In the 'Create Link' menu under 'Link Action' select go to a page view and then click the Next button. Scroll to the text you want to link to and select 'Set Link' in the pop-up menu.
• Add Alt Text
  • Under the Accessibility Tags menu, right-click your Reference or Note tag and select 'Properties'. The Object Properties pop-up menu should show you the Tag tab under which the Alternate Text box lives. This text should indicate the superscript and where the footnote or reference text that you are linking to is in the document (e.g., superscript * links to [footnote/reference] * on the bottom of page 1.). There is no standard practice for what reference/footnote alt text should read. This is simply one method that you can apply.

Tables and Lists

These tasks are arduous and multi-step, and a large part of the reason we recommend remediating the original document and not the PDF. You can do it!! (but have patience)

• Properly tag the pieces of your Table and List elements.
  • Tables and Lists can be tagged under the Accessibility Tags menu, which is found on the right-hand side of the screen, symbolized respectively by the outline of a paper tag. These elements require multiple tags in order to be navigable.
  • For tables, you must use four different types of tags: 'Table,' 'Table Row,' 'Table Header Cell,' and 'Table Data Cell.'
    • Create 'Table' tag by clicking the three dots and selecting 'New Tag'. In the drop-down menu for 'Type' select 'Table'.
    • Now create a 'Table Row' tag following the same process in the previous list item but select 'Table Row'. Drag and drop this tag under your 'Table' tag within the 'Accessibility Tags' menu. You will need to do this for each row in your table.
    • Under each 'Table Row' tag, you will create cell tags for each of the cells in that row. If it is a header row (i.e., a row labelling the content of each column), you will need to use 'Table Header Cell' tags. Otherwise, use 'Table Data Cell' tags.
    • You will also associate these cell tags with the corresponding table text. To do this, select the cell tag in the 'Accessibility tags' menu, highlight the corresponding text in your document, and then either right-click on the menu or click the three dots and select 'Create Tag from Selection'.
    • Ensure that these tags are properly nested and drag and drop them in the correct order and nesting.
  • Lists also require four types of tags: 'List,' 'List Item,' 'Label,' and 'List Item Body.'
    • Create 'List' tag by clicking the three dots and selecting 'New Tag'. In the drop-down menu for 'Type' select 'List'.
    • Now create a 'List Item' tag following the same process in the previous list item but select 'List Item'. Drag and drop this tag under your 'Table' tag within the 'Accessibility Tags' menu. You will need to do this for each item in your list.
    • Under each 'List Item' tag, you will create a 'Label' tag and a "List Item Body' tag. These will both also need to be associated with the corresponding bullet (for Label tags) and text (for List Item Body tags). To do this, select the tag in the 'Accessibility tags' menu, highlight the corresponding bullet/text in your document, and then either right-click on the menu or click the three dots and select 'Create Tag from Selection'.
    • Ensure that these tags are properly nested. Drag and drop them in the correct order and nesting as needed.

Additional Resources

For additional information about digital accessibility and additional resources, review SERC's Accessibility Guidelines and/or SERC's Why Make Teaching Accessible web page. Reviewing Adobe Acrobat's Accessibility Documentation may provide additional technical support, while reviewing the WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines directly may provide additional support in understanding the motivation in making your documents more accessible.