Accessible Documents

The Accessibility Checker is available only in Adobe Acrobat Pro - the paid version, not in the free version.

Open Accessibility Checker

• Open your document in Adobe Acrobat Pro
• Click on All Tools in the command bar
• Click on View More in the tools list
• Click on Prepare for accessibility

Run the Accessibility Checker

• Click on Check for accessibility
• Choose your options in the dialog box
• Click the Start Checking button
• Results will so in a panel on the right
  • Click the arrow next to the category to see the issues
  • Some things need to be checked manually like reading order

What to look for

• Tagging that puts everything on the page in a logical reading order
• Heading structure that organizes the paper logically
• Hyperlinks that include descriptive text rather than "Click here" or anything similar
• Images, tables, charts, etc. have alt text
• Table formatting including headers and no merged cells
• Document properties
• If a document is scanned, make sure that the document is scanned in optical character recognition mode and not image mode

Editing a pdf

• Acrobat Pro is not free (SDSU faculty and staff may request a copy)
  • The library provides several computers with Acrobat Pro that anyone can use in our building
• Acrobat Free Editor
  • Must create a free Adobe account
  • Allows you to edit files online
• OpenPDF
  • Drag and drop a PDF to edit online