Accessibility: PDFs

Why is this important?
  • Ensures screen readers can navigate and interpret content.
  • Makes scanned documents searchable and readable.
  • Preserves structure and accessibility features from source documents.
When to use it

Use accessible PDFs when sharing finalized documents, forms, reports or resources that need to be preserved in a fixed format.

How to use it

Use Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word to tag headings, lists and tables before exporting. Convert scanned PDFs into searchable text using optical character recognition.

Example

A scanned flyer should be run through optical character recognition and tagged with headings and alternative text before being uploaded to a website or emailed to users.

PDF Accessibility Instructions
Tip for Checking Accessibility

Use Adobe Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker (All Tools > Prepare for Accessibility > Check for Accessibility) to scan for missing tags, reading order issues and contrast problems. Manually verify that headings, lists and tables are tagged correctly.