Quick Tips for Creating Accessible PDF files
- Create the original document in MS Word using styles for headings, paragraphs, list, tables etc and add text descriptors for text content that convey meaning. Do not add any descriptors to eye-candy.
- Convert the document into a Tagged PDF formatted document
- Post– process in Adobe Acrobat Professional.
- Run an Accessibility Checker from within Acrobat
- Open the Tags Tab and find untagged, miss-tagged or items not in the correct read order
- Add, move, rename and delete tags until the tag tree matches the document reading order. These changes are internal to the tree structure and any changes in the structure will not affect the visual display of the document.
- If there are tables, ensure that the <td> tags are changed to <th> for all columns and row headers
- Add alternative text if not present or convert images to artifacts
- Re-run Accessibility Checker
