Documents: Adobe PDF
Accessible PDFs
Accessibility should be built into a document before converting it to a PDF. However, if you do have a PDF that needs to be checked for accessibility, making PDFs accessible has become easier with newer versions of Adobe Acrobat Pro. Acrobat Pro now contains a Make Accessible option that will scan documents and automatically adjust some settings and alert you to other settings that will need to be manually adjusted. When setting out to convert a PDF, be sure to check what version of Adobe Acrobat you have as many people have different versions and settings will vary.
Making a PDF from Microsoft Word
- When saving the Word document select PDF in the File menu.
- Select the Options button and make sure the Document structure tags for accessibility and Create bookmarks using Headings options are selected.
- Click OK and Save. This will tag all of the text formatting, so page headings and lists are correctly interpreted by a screen reader.
- Save your original files (PPT, Word) MS Office 2011 (for Mac) Microsoft Word & PowerPoint 2011 for the Mac cannot produce a fully accessible PDF.