PDF files and Accessibility

PDF files happen to be one of the most problematic ones when it comes to accessibility and WCAG guidelines. Scanned PDFs, particularly, score zero accessibility since they are, essentially, one giant image and not a text that can be recognized by screen readers.

Possible Cases Where PDFs Should Not Be Altered:

1. Copyright and Licensing Restrictions (Many scholarly articles are protected by copyright)
2. Publisher or Database Output is PDF-Only (Academic databases (JSTOR, ProQuest, EBSCO, ScienceDirect, IEEE, etc.))
3. Complex Formatting That Doesn’t Convert Well
   • • Mathematical equations
     • Scientific tables
     • Statistical data sets
     • Chemical formulas
     • Music notation
     • Complex diagrams or multi-column layouts
4. Historical or Archival Documents
5. Required Institutional or Government Forms
6. Vendor-Provided Textbooks and Supplemental Resources

In cases mentioned above, please contact your IDEAS liaison for consultation.

IF an inaccessible file MUST be preserved and provided as a PDF and you need to fix it, you may need Adobe Acrobat. Who to contact to request Adobe Acrobat? syssupport@spcollege.edu

PDF Accessibility: Start with the Intention

For many years, the Portable Document Format (PDF) was a widely popular files provided to students, particularly when preserving precise formatting or offering a downloadable version is critical. However, PDFs are inherently rigid and introduce specific challenges for students using assistive technologies. Unlike flexible HTML pages, a simple PDF cannot be reliably read by a screen reader unless it has the correct underlying structure. Therefore, before providing PDF files to your students, please ask the Foundational Question:

“Does this document absolutely need to be a PDF?” Keep in mind that HTML (such as Canvas Pages) is often the simplest and most accessible default choice.

If the answer is “Yes, this document absolutely need to be a PDF“, then follow the guidelines below:

1. Prepare the Source Document Correctly

Creating an accessible PDF starts with the authoring software (like Microsoft Word). Accessibility is easiest when you build it in from the beginning.

• If the source Word file isn’t structured, the resulting PDF will be a “flat” image of text that a screen reader cannot navigate. Always use built-in features like Heading Styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) to organize your content hierarchy.
• Only the Windows version of Microsoft Word supports creating fully accessible (tagged) PDFs directly. PDFs created on other operating systems or basic word processors may require more manual work later.

2. Ensure the PDF is “Tagged”

Tagging is the most critical step. Tags are invisible structural markers that tell assistive technology the logical reading order and meaning of elements (e.g., “This is a heading,” “This is a table,” “This is a list”).

• Always create the PDF as a “tagged” document directly from your authoring software when exporting.
• If your document uses complex data tables, you will likely need to open the final PDF in Adobe Acrobat to manually insert and correct the appropriate table tags to define row and column headers. Doing this in Acrobat is much harder than building the structure in Word first.