Accessible PDF documents
Creating accessible PDF documents is not difficult.
In this video we will show you step by step what accessible PDFs are,
how to create them in Microsoft Word and Acrobat Pro and how to test the accessibility of your documents.
We will also explain how to convert scans into machine-readable PDFs.
STEP 1: WHAT ARE ACCESSIBLE PDF DOCUMENTS?
First of all, what are accessible PDF documents?
They are easy to read with screen readers and magnification software; they are clearly designed and structured
and have some technical specifications.
The following rule applies: Start by planning the structure of your document.
Focus on providing information and avoid a playful or confusing layout.
STEP 2: CREATE ACCESSIBLE DOCUMENTS IN MICROSOFT WORD
Now let's take a step-by-step look at how to create an accessible PDF
in Microsoft Word and then in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
STYLES
First, you assign styles to your text.
To do this, open the "Styles" gallery.
Select a text segment and assign it a style.
Keep to the following structure:
For the title of your document choose the style "Heading 1".
Please use this style only once per document.
For chapter headings select the style "Heading 2", for subheadings "Heading 3" and so on.
For standard text, select the "Normal" style.
Use sans serif fonts if possible, for example Arial or Helvetica.
Using styles will allow for a table of contents to be created automatically.
To do this, select the option "References" and then the tab "Table of Contents".
DETERMINE THE DOCUMENT LANGUAGE
So the screen reader knows which emphasis should be used to read the text,
it is important to determine the document language.
In most cases, Word has the German language as the default setting with the "Automatically detect language" option.
If foreign language texts are used, which are not automatically recognized by Word,
the language can be changed using the tool "Review - Language".
To do this, select the correct language in the list and confirm.
In the same way, individual words or passages can be assigned to another language.
USE OF IMAGES AND GRAPHS
You may also want to use illustrations in your document.
Be aware that every illustration you use needs a caption and a so-called Alt Text,
providing the most important information about the illustration.
You can enter an Alt Text by right-clicking on the illustration, selecting "Edit Alt Text"
and writing the text in the input field.
The text stored here is not visible in the document, but is read aloud automatically by the screen reader programs.
The structure of an Alt Text consists of: 1.) the illustration type (e.g. photo, line drawing or pie chart),
2.) a short description, as objective as possible
(If possible, leave the interpretation to the reader)
and 3.) the copyright notice.
In general: use technical terms and put any terms quoted from the illustration in quotation marks.
It is also advisable to state in the illustration description
whether the illustration is merely decorative or part of the content.
Now add the illustration caption.
While the Alt Text is active in the background, the illustration captions are visible for everyone.
These are usually shorter and do not always provide a complete description of the illustration content.
You can create an illustration caption by right-clicking on the illustration and selecting "Insert Caption".
You first select whether it consists of a figure, a table or a formula.
Afterwards write a short caption in the input window.
This way, the caption can be reliably assigned to the image,
even with a screen reader.
Such a caption also makes it possible to create a list of figures,
which in turn can be used for navigation.
ACCESSIBLE LINKS
Next, we'll create an accessible link.
To assure good readability of a link, it should be attached to a meaningful description.
To do this, select the desired term, for example: "University of Potsdam".
Right-click to open the context menu and select the "Link" option.
This is where you paste the actual link.
The text that is displayed in the document can also be adjusted here.
It is important to also add a ScreenTip.
Additional information can be added to the link here, e.g. the destination of the link or some brief information.
This will appear as soon as the mouse hovers over the link.
These descriptions are a valuable aid for users of screen readers.
BULLET POINTS AND LISTS
Bullet points and lists are also important structuring tools.
In order for lists to be tagged as such in both Word and PDF documents - and thus recognized by the screen reader -
the list tools provided for this purpose must be used.
There are three types of lists to choose from: the Bullet Library,
the Numbering Library and a multilevel list.
TABLES
There are a few things you should keep in mind when creating a table.
A table should not only be recognizable as such visually, but also by a machine.
Therefore it is best to use the table tool provided for this purpose
and not spaces or tabs.
Using the tool "Insert" you can insert a table with the desired number of rows and columns.
Please check the option "Table Design" in the menu to see whether the first line of your table is set as Header Row.
If not, check the box.
Likewise, if you want your table to have a first column on the left or a last column on the right or a total row at the bottom.
An Alt Text should also be assigned to a table.
As with an illustration, this text is not visible in the document, but is read out by screen readers.
To do this, right click on the desired table and select "Table Properties" in the context menu.
You can then add a short description in the "Alt Text" tab.
It's similar with a caption.
Right-click the selected table again and select the tool "Insert Caption".
In the selection menu, switch from "Figure" to "Table" and add a short caption.
Notice: a table should not be used as a layout grid.
If you want to create a document with several columns,
use the option for multi-column documents found in the menu "Layout" instead.
COLORS
Perhaps you would like to color your document now.
Do not use too many different colors.
Make sure to use color values with the highest possible gradation.
In particular, there should be as high a contrast as possible between the text and the background.
Black and white is the highest possible contrast.
If individual terms or groups of words are highlighted in color in the text,
they need to be additionally emboldened or receive other visually recognizable features,
because some users cannot see the color highlighting.
Before we check our document, two more notices:
Avoid manually creating paragraphs or adding spacings in the text by hitting the space key repeatedly.
Instead, use the tab key or the key combination "Control + Enter"
for a new paragraph on the next page
or specify the spacing in the styles.
Unfortunately, the accessible output of footnotes does not yet work very well.
It is therefore advisable to avoid these if possible
or at least to limit their number.
CHECKING THE ACCESSIBILITY
After you have finished your document, you can now carry out a first accessibility check in Word.
To do this, select the "Check Accessibility" tool under the "Review" option.
The output field now shows what is still missing.
By clicking on the listed element, you jump directly to the right place in the document
and can add the missing information. In our case, an illustration is still missing the Alt Text.
EXPORTING AS PDF
After the review, you can export the document as a PDF.
To do this, select the "Acrobat" tab and create a PDF.
Please do not create the PDF using the "Print" function.
STEP 3: CHECKING AND EDITING PDFs IN ADOBE ACROBAT PRO
After exporting, we open our PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
First, let's look at the Bookmarks feature.
With the Bookmarks function, which can be found at the top left, you can display the document structure,
as it is stored for the visually impaired.
If the styles have been used correctly in Word, a correct hierarchical structure will appear here.
DEFINE THE DOCUMENT LANGUAGE
If you did not yet define the document language when creating the document in Word
you can do this now.
To do this, you can specify the language under "File / Properties" and the "Advanced" tab.
Caution: this way you determine the language of the entire document,
while in Word you can also specify a different language for individual words or paragraphs.
READING ORDER
If you have worked a lot with graphs or tables,
screen readers may misinterpret the reading order of the document.
You should therefore check the order by opening the
"Reading Order" tool in the left bar with a mouse click.
If this is not available, you can right-click on the tool
"Reading Order" in the bar. Each element now has a number.
This indicates the order of the object within the document as it will be translated by the screen reader.
If something is wrong here, drag the element to the correct place with the mouse button pressed.
In our case, the two images were not in the right position.
CHECKING THE DOCUMENT
You can now check your document once more.
To do this, select the "Accessibility" tab in the right column.
If this is not available, select the option "More tools"
and add the tab "Accessibility".
Now click on "Accessibility Check".
Now you get a complete overview of your document and any possible problems.
Here you also have the option of correcting deficiencies, for example adding missing Alt Texts.
In addition, tips and assistance are given for troubleshooting.
In our case we still have to add the title of the document
and are asked to manually check a color contrast.
Don't let any red warnings intimidate you. With a little practice they will get less,
even though they might not disappear entirely.
This is especially true for documents that are only being made accessible at a later point.
If you plan your documents accordingly from the beginning, you should soon see hardly any warning messages.
STEP 4: CONVERT SCANS INTO ACCESSIBLE PDF DOCUMENTS
You have probably experienced this: The scan of a text
is not available as machine-readable text, but as an image.
To convert your scans into readable, accessible documents, do the following:
Open your scanned PDF in Acrobat Pro and select the tool "Enhance Scans"
in the toolbar on the right. Now you can select "Recognize Text" from the menu above.
Your scan will now be converted to text. However, depending on the quality of the scan, the results can vary widely.
Then save the document as a Word document,
by selecting the option "File", "Export To" and "Microsoft Word".
Now choose the storage location and confirm.
Now you can open the text in Word, correct it if necessary
and edit it according to the guidelines already mentioned.
If the scanned file contains graphs, these must first be
deleted in the converted Word document, then scanned separately
and inserted into the converted Word document as graphs in jpeg or png format.
Finally, create an accessible PDF from the Word document in Acrobat Pro.
STEP 5: SUMMARY
I will briefly summarize what to pay attention to
when creating an accessible PDF. First, you assign the styles.
You then specify the document language and add a caption and Alt Text to the images and graphs.
With the tools provided for this purpose, you can create bullet points,
lists and tables. You add links correctly and observe the design guidelines.
Finally, determine the reading order and test the accessibility.
Do not worry!
With a little routine and planning ahead, it is not difficult to create accessible documents.