Accessibility in Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat’s built-in accessibility tools helps you design PDF documents that are compatible with screen reading software; an essential tool for users with impaired visibility.

What are tags?

Tags are how we note essential information about a document’s elements. They denote the semantic structure of your document, for example, heading levels, images, and tables, in a way that allows screen reader technology to relay structure and content to its users.

Ensuring your PDFs are tagged correctly is a vital step in making your documents accessible to everyone. Tags are stored in the background and do not affect visual appearance, so you do not need to worry that tagging your PDF will change the look and feel of your document.

Below, we cover the four main aspects of creating accessible documents.

Headings

Headings outline the document’s structure, allowing users to easily navigate and get an overview. They are tagged with H1 to H6, similar to Microsoft Word, with an additional general heading tag, H.

If the inbuilt heading styles have been used correctly in Microsoft Office and Adobe InDesign, generating a PDF from these documents should result in a formatted document with correct heading hierarchy.

To check or fix the heading hierarchy, first navigate to All tools, then to Prepare for accessibility.

First, we recommend that you ‘autotag’ the content. Tagging identifies the individual components as paragraph text, headings, figures/images etc.
To begin autotagging, select Autotag document.

Adobe Acrobat can autotag the contents of a document

Select Reading order to check that the contents of the PDF have been tagged correctly.

Adobe Acrobat – check the tagging of PDFs by opening the Read Order panel

If any components have been incorrectly tagged, use the Reading order panel to select the section and correct the tag. Once you have completed tagging content, close the Reading order panel. We recommend you also run an Accessibility check, which can be found under the Prepare for accessibility menu.

A tagged heading in Adobe Acrobat. Acrobat shows the heading as highlighted in pale blue.

Adobe Acrobat – incorrectly tagged components can be changed in the Reading Order panel

Links

Automatic tagging usually handles links well, but it’s good to know how to do it manually if needed.

The Reading Order Tool doesn’t have a Link tag option, so use the Accessibility Tags Pane. Open the Options Menu, select Find, choose Unmarked Links, and search. Click Tag Element, select Link, and click OK. You’ll get an empty Link tag and Link – OBJR Annotation. Highlight the Link tag, select the link text in the Document Pane, open the Options Menu, and select Create Tag from Selection. Now, the link text and Link – OBJR Annotation will be under the Link tag.

Tips to avoid problems

When creating links, consider where they lead to, and label them accordingly. For example, write “Visit Student Services .” rather than “For Student Services, click here.”

Keep linked phrases short, 3-5 words.
Links should describe what they are linking to.
Links should be in contrasting colours to be mindful of learners with low vision or colour blindness.
Avoid linking headings.
Never use a URL for the link text—screen readers will read out the URL verbatim, e.g. www.canvas…

Accessibility tags settings panel showing the find element search with option 'Unmarked links' highlighted to search the document for links that aren't marked

Alt text

If the alt text has been added correctly in Microsoft Office and Adobe InDesign, generating a PDF from these documents should result in accessible images.

To check or fix the alt text in Acrobat, first navigate to All tools then to Prepare for accessibility.
Next, select Set Alternate Text. Acrobat will scan your document for all images.

Add alternate text in the to figures in Adobe Acrobat

Tables

If the inbuilt heading styles have been used correctly in Microsoft Office and Adobe InDesign, generating a PDF from these documents should result in a formatted document with the correct heading hierarchy.

To check or fix the heading hierarchy, first navigate to All tools then to Prepare for accessibility.

First it is recommended to autotag the content. Tagging identifies the individual components as paragraph text, headings, figures/images etc.
To being autotagging, select Autotag document.

Adobe Acrobat can autotag the contents of a document via the Autotag button.

Select Reading order to check that the contents of the PDF have been tagged correctly.

Adobe Acrobat – incorrectly tagged components can be changed in the Reading Order panel

If any components have been incorrectly tagged, using the Read Order panel to select the section and correct the tag.

Once you have completed tagging content, close the Reading order panel. It is recommended to also run an Accessibility check which can be found under the Prepare for accessibility menu.

Right click on table cells, select Table Cell Properties to define the cell type and the scope.

Define the cell properties in Acrobat. The Table Cell Properties panel in Adobe Acrobat enables you to choose the scope of a table cell (row, column, both, or none), whether it spans rows or columns, and adding associated header cells.

Page updated 02/09/2024

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