Remediation Workflow
This guide provides a comprehensive process to fix inaccessible PDFs. An understanding of PDF Fundamentals and Checking PDF Accessibility is a prerequisite for this guide.
The following steps outline the remediation process. Since the quality and content of PDFs can vary, not every step applies to every document.
- Does the document provide sufficient color contrast and avoid color reliance? Does it use descriptive links? If not, update the source file and export it to a new PDF, use an alternative format or edit the PDF directly.
- Is the document scanned as an image? If so, use optical character recognition (OCR) to convert the image to real text.
- Is the document tagged? If not, run Acrobat's automatic tagging feature.
- Does the document provide a logical reading order? If not, update the reading order.
- Is the document tagged properly? If not, update the tag structure.
- Do images have accurate alternative text? If not, update alternative text.
- Verify document metadata: title, language and security settings.
- Verify forms are accessible.
- Run Acrobat's automated accessibility check and resolve any remaining issues.
Caution
- Following these steps will fix accessibility issues in a PDF. If the source document is updated and exported to a new PDF, the process begins again. Start with an accessible source.
- Adobe Acrobat can, at times, be unreliable. Save your work frequently by creating backup copies of your PDF so you can revert to previous versions.
For support, including personalized training, contact the Digital Accessibility Team.
Next: Color and Links
