LX / PDFs: accessible practice

PDFs: accessible practice

Published by LX Team | Last updated 27 July 2023

Inclusive and accessible practices PDFs: accessible practice

Learn how to apply the LX Accessible Content Practices in a PDF.

Accessibility in a PDF

Important!

The easiest way to create an accessible PDF is to ensure your original document is accessible, and then convert it to a PDF. Repairing an inaccessible PDF can be very time consuming, so follow the accessible content practices before converting.

What makes a PDF accessible?

Highlightable text (scanned PDFs or image-only PDFs are not accessible).
Tags that help students who use screen readers to navigate the document (e.g., if you use heading styles in Microsoft Word, it will create a tag to convert the content structure).

Exporting accessible PDFs from Microsoft

If you have added heading styles (Word), slide titles (PowerPoint), alternative text, hyperlinks and tables of contents to your document or presentation, then you can export an accessible PDF with the correct tags.

Mac

Run the Accessibility check in Word or PowerPoint and fix any issues
Select File
Select Save As…
Select PDF in the File Format drop down
Select Best for electronic distribution and accessibility (this option will not appear in PowerPoint)
Select Export

Screenshot of the Best for electronic distribution and accessibility option selected when exporting to a PDF — The Save as dialogue box on a Mac displaying how to export as a PDF.

PC

You might have an option to ‘Save as Adobe PDF’ in your version of Word. However, if you you don’t, follow the instructions below:

Select File
Select Save As…
Select PDF in the Save as type drop down
Select Options, and make sure the Document structure tags for accessibility check box is selected
Select OK

Screenshot of selecting PDF in the Save as type field — The Save as dialogue box on a PC displaying how to export as a PDF.

Microsoft Creating accessible PDFs

Accessibility checker

The accessibility checker automatically scans your document, identifies issues and provides information on how to fix them. It is available in Adobe Acrobat.

It’s important to run the accessibility checker when:

Exporting to a PDF – to double check the tags have come across correctly, for example alternative text is provided for images
Repairing an inaccessible PDF – to add the tags, for example if a PDF has been created by selecting the optimise for print option

How to run the accessibility check

Select Tools
Select Accessibility, under Protect & Standardize (you can also select Add in the drop down under Accessibility so the tool is available when you open any document in Adobe Acrobat)
Select Accessibility Check to create an accessibility report
Fix issues that are identified