A11y: PDFs and Accessibility

PDFs are great in that they can be opened by anyone, anywhere. However, their static nature makes it slightly more difficult for accessibility, especially when translations or images are concerned.

Before uploading a PDF to your website, it’s important to first verify that it was created with accessibility in mind. If you’re following the same rules for your PDFs as you are for writing on the web (including the rules for underlines, all-caps, and color) you’re mostly there.

Key Takeaways

  • When possible, write content directly on the web instead of using a PDF.
  • Follow the same guidelines that you would when writing and creating online content.
  • Check for accessibility support in whatever program you’re using to create a PDF.
  • Images in PDFs also need alternative text.
  • Avoid underlines (except for links), all-caps, and centered text.
  • Adding Images to a document and then saving it as a PDF doesn’t bypass the alt-text requirement.

Microsoft Products and Accessibility

Microsoft products, such as Word and Excel have a built-in Accessibility checker that you can enable while creating your document, or that you can run at the end of document creation. Depending on your workflow, you may find it more efficient to have it enabled as you create your files. As these options have changed through the years, it’s important to search the product’s current help docs for updated information.

Adobe Acrobat and Accessibility

Adobe Acrobat is what most people use to read and manipulate PDFs. The free version that will let people read PDFs, but the paid version will let you change them and add accessibility features as needed. However, it’s always best to create your PDFs with accessibility in mind to begin with to prevent having to go back in and retro-fit your content.

Section508.gov PDF Guides

Section508.gov has created a robust guide to creating PDFs for accessibility, as well as guides to using Adobe Acrobat to test and remediate PDFs. As an added resources, you may find their tutorials helpful.

As a reminder, the simplest way to make a PDF accessible is to create it with accessibility in mind in the first place. It’s much easier to run your documents through an accessibility checker when available, then to have to go back into a PDF and make it accessible after-the-fact.