How to Prepare Source Documents to Create Accessible PDF's - Quick Guide

The following content will go over how to prepare your content before you convert it into a PDF and how to ensure that you convert content into PDF the most effective way for accessibility. Please avoid "printing to PDF" as this option does not create an accessible PDF version of your documents.

Before you Create the PDF

Before you begin creating your file in the source application that you use e.g. MS Word, PowerPoint etc., review accessibility guidelines (if applicable) for the application you are working with. Applications that offer the best support for accessibility are: 

If you follow accessibility guidelines and you create your document using any of these applications, you will have fewer manual adjustments to make for accessibility once your file is in PDF format. 

Microsoft Word Documents Accessibility Checklist

  • Use Styles and Formatting  for headings/section titles e.g. (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 etc)
  • Add alternative text for images
  • Use Descriptive Labels for Links instead of the long URL
  • Keep your tables simple and Identify Table Headers and/or Row headers
  • Use built in accessibility checker to review and fix accessibility issues
  • Set preferences for Acrobat PDFMaker in Word, PPT and any other application you will be converting over from
  • Use the Acrobat Tab or Save as PDF options to convert documents into PDF's

For detailed step by step instructions about how to create Accessible Word Documents, please see the Accessibility in Word Canvas course.

Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Checklist:

  • Use the Normal View as you create your presentations
  • Use built in Standard Slide layouts
  • Ensure all slides have a unique title
  • Review reading order/structure of each slide
  • Use effective color contrast
  • Use readable text (font/size)
  • Use descriptive labels for your hyperlinks
  • Use simple table structure and identify table headers
  • Use captioned videos/audio (transcripts for audio)
  • Distribute presentation in multiple accessible formats

For additional guidelines on creating accessible content in  PowerPoint please see the  Accessibility in PowerPoint Canvas course

Please Note:  A PDF document that is created from a scan cannot be made accessible until the text that is present is converted into readable text. This can be done by using the OCR tool within Acrobat, available on the Enhance Scans tool in Adobe Acrobat Pro. If OCR results in Acrobat are not satisfactory, and if you do not have access to the original text document, you may need to start over or use more effective OCR software, like Omnipage Links to an external site. or ABBYY FineReader Links to an external site.


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