Importance for Accessibility
Accessible documents are designed so everyone, including screen reader users, can read, understand, and navigate them correctly.
Why It Matters
- Prevents content from being read in the wrong order
- Ensures links, headings, and images make sense
- Provides equal access to information
Core Principles
- Structure content with headings and proper order
- Use descriptive link text
- Add alt text to images
- Ensure correct reading order
- Don’t rely on color alone to convey meaning
Best Workflow
- Start with an accessible source file (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
- Use built-in accessibility checkers
- Export to PDF only after fixing issues
- Verify accessibility after exporting (Adobe accessibility checker)
Important Tips
- Fix issues before converting to PDF
- Auto-tagging helps, but manual review is still required
- Accessibility is easier when built in from the start
Tools & Training
The EIRAC created training modules for Word, PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat in Canvas. Excel best practices are managed by Microsoft and are updated alongside the product.
- Document Accessibility: Word
- Document Accessibility: PowerPoint
- PDF Accessibility
- Excel Accessibility Best Practices
Video Training
If you prefer video training guides, Access University has video training for Word, PowerPoint, and PDF documents. Registering an account is free, so please visit the Access University resource page to find out more.
Enabling Cloud-based Auto-tagging with Adobe Acrobat
- Open Preferences in Acrobat by pressing Ctrl + K (Windows®) or Command + K (macOS).
- In the Categories on the left, choose Accessibility.
- To enable, select Enable cloud-based auto-tagging for accessibility, then select OK.
Follow these instructions to auto-tag a document using the accessibility checker in Adobe Acrobat.
- Run the accessibility checker
- In the results, right-click on Tagged PDF - Failed
- Select Fix
Compliance Reminder
Auto-tagging the document does not conclude your review. You will still need to address any issues the Adobe accessibility checker finds and inspect the tag tree for accuracy.
For more information about these features, please read Adobe's Cloud-based Auto-tagging resources.