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.

A11y: Links, Buttons, and Files

Links and buttons are considered navigable elements, meaning that when they are activated, they take you to another location.

Key Takeaways

  • Only links are underlined, do not underline text that is not a link.
  • Name links and buttons what they are. (Descriptive names, not ‘click here.’)
  • Name files what they are. If using the download button, rename button.

Naming Links and Buttons

One of the main ways that assistive devices navigate a website is through the use of links. The link text will be read out loud whenever a link is accessed. For this reason, it’s important to name links what they are. If your links are named ‘click here’ or ‘read more,’ not only is it exclusive, but also fails to provide information on what the link does, or where it goes.

As part of the naming, leaving the URL in its raw state will result in the full URL being read. The only time this is appropriate, is if you’re linking to a main, short URL. Otherwise, it’s better to name the link without using ‘www’ or ‘.com’ in the text.

Good Examples

Poor Examples

In the case of buttons, sometimes you may want to use a ‘Download’ button. If using the ‘download’ button, be sure to rename the button text so that it indicates what is being downloaded (e.g. Download Dress Code).

By default, the website templates will handle a link’s design appropriately. As long as the default settings are used, links will already be underlined as well as meet color criteria when hovered, clicked, and visited.

Naming & Linking Files

By default, WordPress uses the file name as the link’s text. For this reason, it’s important to name the file what it is before uploading it to the Media Library. Additionally, doing so will help when conducting searches in the media library. (For files, it’s the ‘Title’ field in the Media Library that determines the link text.)

It’s extremely helpful when linking to files to also include the type of file that it is in the link text.

Example without Download Button

Best PDF Ever (PDF)

Example with Download Button

When linking a file (using the ‘File’ block), you have the option of adding a download button in the block settings. We do not want repetitive links on the page because of the confusion this can cause, so it is best practice to either use a button, or a text link, do not use both.

Just like with text links, you should maintain the same naming standard and use the file name with the file type, and not just the word, “Download”

Best PDF Ever (PDF)

File names with dates

If your file name has a date in it (and it’s important to the link), please be sure to use a proper date format in the name: 12-03-2021, 2021-12-03 for example. (File names do not allow forward slashes, but you can use the slashes in your file’s link text.)