Creating Accessible PDFs

Name: Creating Accessible PDFs
Author: Ryan Mathews

Learn what accessibility means in PDFs and how to create and manage accessible forms

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 6 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

In this lesson, you will learn how to begin to use the Accessibility tool within Adobe Acrobat. So before we get started, let's first go over what makes an accessible PDF and what is accessibility? So an accessible PDF means that individuals with learning differences or disabilities can access and can initiate, use, understand, and articulate PDFs through the format of PDFs using accessibility standards. What this means is that PDFs have a certain number of characteristics within them, such as color contrast, interactives, tags, fillable items, searchable items, read-aloud options, and secondary tool sets that can be used for individuals with disabilities that need help or assistance reading or using a PDF. PDFs can be embedded with these characteristics to make sure that they meet the standards set by federal guidelines to ensure that those with disabilities, such as hard of hearing or blindness, can access and can use PDFs. Some more of those characteristics that are a little bit more advanced is things such as security settings. Accessibility means that security settings such as passwords, codes, cannot interfere with the ability for them to access a document using those accessible characteristics. Another example is color contrast, making sure that your document has an easy-to-read flow so that if the individual needs to use read aloud tools, the document can be fully recognized and can be read aloud to that individual. Those are just some examples of accessibility and how to make sure that your document has characteristics for accessibility. Luckily, Adobe Acrobat makes it very easy to ensure accessibility standards are met for PDFs, especially if you're trying to reach a large amount of people. It can reach the needs of multiple types of learners. So let's go ahead and get started. In this lesson, I'm going to introduce you to the Accessibility tool within Adobe Acrobat. To access this tool, you're gonna navigate up to the Tools tab on the upper left-hand side, and you're gonna scroll down until you find Accessibility. Once you find Accessibility, which is under Protect and Standardize, you can click on that. Now, like I mentioned before, PDFs have strict standards for Accessibility because the interactives, the design elements, the content needs to be able to be accessible to those with any type of disabilities. Therefore, this specific tool, and you can see from the list on the right-hand side, specifically offers that type of standardization for your PDFs. This is how you can access the Accessibility tool and begin to use this tool within Adobe Acrobat. Let's go over the menu on the right-hand side. On the right-hand side, you have all the different themes of accessibility that is created by Adobe Acrobat. You have the Autotag Document, you've got the Autotag Form Fields. You've got the Reading Options. You have an Accessibility Check. You have an Accessibility Report. You have an Identify Form Fields option. You have a Set Alternative Text. You have a Set Up Assistance, and you have a Reading Order. These are all options that you have for ensuring that your PDF is fully accessible and reaches the standards to meet all the needs of any type of person within your audience that you're sharing this PDF with. In the next lesson, we'll go over in detail how to make sure that your forms, your PDFs, and all these different settings within accessibility can be met so that your PDF can be fully accessible.

Advanced Provider : Ryan Mathews 6 Lessons · 41m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

These lessons focus on creating and checking for accessibility within your PDFs. You will learn how to use the accessibility tool and the expectations for accessibility. You will learn how to auto tag, adjust setting for accessibility and how to create an accessibility report. In addition, we will focus on the standards for accessibility and the characteristics that make a document accessible. This chapter will prepare you with the knowledge you will need to create an accessible PDF.

What You'll Learn

Define accessibility and check for accessibility within your PDFs
Use the accessibility tool, auto tag, and adjust settings for accessibility
Apply the 32 characteristics that make a document accessible
Create accessible forms using tags for accessibility
Run accessibility checks, rechecks, and generate accessibility reports
Solve accessibility issues and use tag shortcuts

Key Takeaways

The course covers creating and checking for accessibility within your PDFs.
It teaches the expectations and standards for accessibility, including the 32 characteristics of an accessible PDF.
Learners use the accessibility tool to auto tag documents and adjust settings for accessibility.
The course shows how to check, recheck, and run reports for accessibility.
It prepares learners with the knowledge needed to create an accessible PDF, including accessible forms.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this course?

You will learn what accessibility is and how to check for it in your PDF, the 32 characteristics of an accessible PDF, how to create accessible forms, how to use tags for accessibility, and how to check, recheck, and run reports for accessibility.

Does this course cover accessibility standards?

Yes. The course focuses on the standards for accessibility and the characteristics that make a document accessible, including the 32 characteristics of an accessible PDF and UA requirements.

What topics are included in the lessons?

The lessons cover the Accessibility Tool, UA Requirements, Accessibility Check and Report, Creating Accessibility Forms, Solve Accessibility Issues, and Tag Shortcuts.

What skills does this course build?

It builds skills related to PDF Editors, PDF Generation, PDF Readers, PDF Viewer, PDF Writer, and PDFKit.

What will I be able to do after completing the course?

This chapter will prepare you with the knowledge you will need to create an accessible PDF, including auto tagging, adjusting settings for accessibility, and creating an accessibility report.