PDF Accessible Repair with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro
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Acrobat 9 Pro PDF Accessibility
Repair Workflow
At a high level, the process of making existing PDF files accessible consists of a few basic steps:
1. Take a moment to examine and evaluate the PDF document before you begin (See “Step 1: Exam-
ine the PDF File” on page 3).
2. Determine if the PDF file originated from a scan. If so, perform Optical Character Recognition
(OCR) using the OCR Text Recognition command in Adobe Acrobat 9 (See “Step 2: Determine if
the PDF is a Scanned Document” on page 3).
3. Add fillable form fields and buttons with short descriptions if the PDF file is intended to work as an
interactive document. Set the tab order for the form field (See “Step 3: Add Interactive Features:
Form Fields and Buttons” on page 6).
4. Add other accessibility features to the PDF such as bookmarks and security that does not interfere
with assistive technology (See “Step 4: Add Other Accessibility Features” on page 14).
5. Add tags to the PDF if it has not been tagged (See “Step 5: Determine if the PDF File is a Tagged
PDF File” on page 18).
6. Determine if the PDF file has been properly tagged (See “Step 6: Determine if the PDF File is
Properly Tagged” on page 21).
7. Check your results with the Acrobat Accessibility Checke. Refer to the document. (See “Step 7: Use
the Accessibility Checker to Evaluate the PDF File” on page 42).
Though these stages are presented in an order that suits most needs, you may perform tasks in these stages in
a different order or iterate between some of the stages. In all cases, you should first examine the document,
determine its intended purpose, and use that analysis to determine the workflow that you should apply.
Step 1: Examine the PDF File
When you open the PDF file, take a moment to analyze the document before you. Take a moment to note its
characteristics.
• Is it a short document with a small number of pages or a long document consisting of many pages?
• Is the document mostly text or a mixture of text and graphics?
• Does the document appear to have form fields?
• Another item to note is the complexity of the document’s layout. In some instances, documents of
shorter length may be more challenging from an accessibility perspective than longer docments
because their layout and read order are more complex. Is the layout simple, a single column with a
limited number of graphics, or is it complex with multiple columns, mixed layouts, tables and many
graphics? Complex layouts are an indicator that you may be spending more time with the
document doing more detailed accessibility enhancements with the Touch Up Read Order Tool.
Step 2: Determine if the PDF is a Scanned Document
A common method for making PDF documents is to place a paper copy of a document into a scanner and
then opening the resulting electronic version using Adobe Acrobat to view the newly scanned document as a
PDF file. Unfortunately, this process results in creating an image of text and not the actual text itself. This
means the content is not accessible to users who rely on assistive technology to hear the contents of the page.
Additional work must take place to make the document accesible.
Note: If you are certain that the PDF document is not a scanned document or it has previously
undergone optical character recognition, you can skip this discussion and proceed to
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