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PDF is popular file format for teaching materials - especially when instructors want to provide materials to students at low or no cost. However, some PDFs shared by instructors may not be fully accessible, creating a barrier to students who rely on assistive technology. FSU's licensed accessibility software, Yuja Panorama, has the capability of scanning and performing some inline remediation for PDFs. However, Panorama should be considered a "safety net"—it helps catch many issues, but it doesn't replace accessible design. You should always try to get (or make) an accessible PDF first, before attempting to remediate an inaccessible PDF
Do this first: Start out with a More Accessible PDF
Scan of a Physical Document (book, magazine, map, etc)
- Find a different version of the document through the Henry Whittemore Library's collections, through the Interlibrary Loan Service or from another legitimate source. You may be able to find a digital version, a cleaner scan, and/or a version that is already fully accessible.
- Make a cleaner scan. The Henry Whittemore Library may be able to advise on the best way to do this. They may be able to direct you to a higher quality scanner than the printer/scanner you have at home. It is recommended that that a scanner be set to at least 300 DPI.
- OCR while you scan! If you use Adobe Acrobat to create your scanned PDF, you can configure the settings to Recognize Text/Apply OCR (Optical Character Recognition) while scanning. FSU Faculty and Staff have access to Adobe Acrobat Pro (see How Do I Access Adobe Creative Cloud Apps including Adobe Acrobat?) There is also the Adobe Scan mobile app available for download in the Apple App Store and Google Play, which you can use even if you do not have access to a scanner.
Non-Scholarly Articles
Full-text PDFs from scholarly journal articles are typically accessible, but articles from the popular press (commercial publications, blogs, etc.) may not have this export type available. Consider the following best practices when sharing this type of material:
- Share Link to Original instead
- Avoid "Print to PDF"
For more information, see Best Practices for Sharing News and Journal Articles
Documents Created in Another Platform (Word, Powerpoint, etc) and Saved As PDF
Documents can be created in platforms like Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, or Adobe Photoshop, Canva, etc and saved as a PDF.
If you are creating an new document, before saving as PDF: Consider accessible design principles and use the platform's built-in accessibility checker such as the Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker, to check for (and fix) accessibility issues before saving as PDF. And remember, use "Save As" or "Export As" PDF, not Print-to-PDF. See Export Accessible PDF from MS Word for more information.
If you've already created a PDF: if possible, re-open the original in its original authoring platform (Word, Powerpoint, etc), perform accessibility checks and fixes there, and re-save as PDF. Editing and checking for accessibility is not easy in Adobe Acrobat, so it is always recommended that you do editing in the original authoring platform.
Next: Use Panorama to Check for Accessibility
Even if you think your PDF is likely accessible, use Yuja Panorama to check it.
Panorama will not catch 100% of accessibility issues, and there are some issues that cannot be fixed using Panorama. In such cases, the best option may be to reopen the document in its original authoring platform (Word, Powerpoint, etc) to fix the issues. Even if you did not create a PDF yourself, or you do not know what was used to create the original, oftentimes a PDF can be opened, and edited, in Word or Powerpoint, which are much easier to use than Adobe Acrobat. This works best for documents with simple content and formatting. But there are some cases in which it may be necessary to open the document in Acrobat and use it's editing and/or accessibility features.
If Necessary: Use Adobe Acrobat
FSU Faculty and Staff have access to Adobe Acrobat Pro (see How Do I Access Adobe Creative Cloud Apps including Adobe Acrobat?)
Adobe Acrobat Pro has many powerful features, but its user interface is not very intuitive. Many of the accessibility-related functions can also be performed directly in Yuja Panorama. Most of Acrobat's accessibility functions can be found listed under Tools>Prepare for Accessibility. On this list you will see "Check for Accessibility" (Acrobat's "accessibility checker") and "Open Accessibility Report" - these features are NOT recommended. If you would like to run an accessibility check in Acrobat (instead of using Panorama), using All Tools > Use Guided Actions> Make Accessible is recommended (see below).
The primary reasons a user might be obligated to use Acrobat are: 1) To access the Tags panel (see below) or 2) to edit the content of a PDF (for example, to change a hyperlink from a raw URL to a descriptive link). To edit: All Tools>Edit a PDF.
The Tags Panel
If you do not see the Tag Icon in the side panel, Choose Menu (hamburger menu at top left)>View > Show/Hide > Side Panels > Accessibiltiy Tags. The Accessibility Tags Panel will appear on the right side of the screen.
- If the document is untagged, you will see "No Tags Available." Right-click there, or click on the Menu, and select "Autotag Document". Note that generating an Alternative Format using Yuja Panorama will also generate tags, and is considered a better option. Acrobat's Autotag functionality has been known to corrupt PDFs in some cases.
- Check reading order: Select a tag in the tags tree. A colored box should appear over the corresponding content. Use the up and down arrow keys to navigate through the tags tree. Review the order the content is presented in. With some exceptions, content typically follows a left to right, top to bottom order, but ultimately the order should be logical. To reorder the tags, select a tag from the Tags Tree and either drag and drop the tag into its correct place in the reading order, or cut and paste the tag under its new parent tag.
- Delete Tags: There may be unnecessary tags generated in the PDF creation process (scanning, or exporting from another platform). These tags can be deleted, which may make it easier for Yuja Panorama to scan the document for accessibility.
Make Accessible - Acrobat's Guided Accessibility Workflow
Acrobat's Make Accessible action combines several steps for checking a PDF's accessibility and performing some remediation, in one guided, step-by-step workflow.
- Choose All Tools > Use Guided Actions. [In the older Adobe Acrobat version: Tools>Action Wizard]
- From the Actions List, click Make Accessible.
- Select the files that you want to apply the Make Accessible action to. By default, the action runs on the document that's currently open. Select Add Files to select additional files or a folder to run the action on.
- Click Start.
- Follow the prompts in each pop-up window to complete the Make Accessible action.
Acrobat will identify images in the documents and prompt you to add alt-text, but it will not write the alt-text for you. The Accessibility checker may also prompt to indicate that there are actions that require manual input or manual checking - such as confirming the reading order of page elements. The document should not be considers "Accessible" until it has been manually checked.
When a PDF Should Not Be Remediated
The most important aspect of PDF accessibility is whether the PDF is machine-readable -both for an accessibility checker like Panorama to be able to check the document, AND for an end-user who may be using assistive technology to access the document. But if a platform's OCR function is unable to accurately read the original PDF, it may produce alternative formats that are garbled, incomplete and/or inaccurate. In such cases it may instead be preferable to either find and use a different version of the document or to present the original document alongside a Conforming Alternative Version (CAV) that does meet accessibility standards. See When a PDF Cannot or Should Not be Remediated for more information.
Additional Resources:
CASA Procedures for the Provision of Course Materials in an Accessible Format
Making Print and Scanned Documents Accessible with Adobe Acrobat (Guide from University of Wisconsin Green Bay)