As we prepare for the implementation deadline for the new ADA Title II regulations, PDF accessibility is particularly challenging. We recommend limiting the use of PDFs as much as possible because of the amount of detailed metadata that is required to make them usable for people who rely on assistive technology such as a screen reader. However, we know that it’s impossible to completely ditch PDFs, so it’s important to make sure you have the skills and tools to make your documents accessible. 

 UFIT is providing free access to Adobe Acrobat Pro to faculty upon request until May 31, 2026 so instructors have the software they need to remediate inaccessible PDFs. 

When you are remediating a PDF, your goal is to provide enough information that screen reading software, which is commonly used by people with visual impairments, can identify whether each piece of content is an image, heading, normal text, etc. and the order of the content. This is done by something called tagging, which identifies the content type. This will be beneficial for people with other disabilities using other types of assistive technology as well. It’s important to make this part of your PDF workflow because, if the tagging is inaccurate, it can be confusing and can prevent some of your students from getting the same content as the rest of the class. 

Once you have downloaded Adobe Acrobat Pro and opened your PDF in the program, you can check the initial accessibility of the document by looking for “Prepare for accessibility” in the tools on the left and then choosing “Check for accessibility.” Through the accessibility checker, you can make sure that your PDF has a title and has a language set. You can search for missing alternative text as well and fix it through the accessibility checker or the tags. The bulk of your time in PDF remediation is likely to be spent making sure that tags are accurate and fixing them when they aren’t. Once you have run the accessibility checker, you should see a tag icon. That opens the tagging tree. As you select tags in the tagging tree, it will highlight the content associated with them so you can check the order in which they are read. You might notice that some things are tagged as the wrong type of content, in which case you will need to double click into the tag and type the correct tag (it is case sensitive). 

As you can see, this can be a labor-intensive process. It isn’t something that can be done automatically without human oversight, because somebody who is a subject matter expert is in the best position to evaluate the content. It’s important to do it to ensure that everyone has the same access to your documents. There are likely students with invisible disabilities in your courses already who use read aloud software and will benefit from the work that you’re doing. And when a screen reader user takes your class, they will not need to wait for an accommodation process for the content to be available to them.  

To make sure you are accurately remediating PDFs, we recommend familiarizing yourself with some resources so that you can be confident in the final product. Here are some helpful starting points: 

• Explore fundamentals of digital accessibility with CITT resources 
• Plan your PDF strategy
• Watch a brief demonstration of someone remediating a PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro 
• Access a curated collection of LinkedIn learning trainings videos about PDF remediation 
• Review Adobe documentation about PDF accessibility and remediation 
• Browse a list of Common PDF Tags and Their Usage 
• Fill out the form to request Adobe Acrobat Pro 

Image Credit: Adobe Acrobat Pro screenshot

Tags: Accessibility