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Checking Accessibility in Adobe Acrobat DC
Adobe Acrobat DC has a built-in accessibility checker to help you make sure the PDFs you have created or get from others meet accessibility guidelines. While no automated checker will catch everything, this is a simple and convenient way to find and fix some of the most common issues with PDFs.
Saving an accessible PDF from Word
Once you have an accessible document set up in Word, it's time to make the PDF! While this seems simple enough, it's still important to do it the correct way, or the final PDF may lose all of that accessibility information.
Checking accessibility in Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word has a built-in accessibility checker to help you make sure the documents you create meet accessibility guidelines. While no automated checker will catch everything, this is a simple and convenient way to keep [...]
Don’t use ‘Print to PDF’
If you're creating a document that needs to be distributed as a PDF, when it comes time to create the PDF, the first rule is very simple: do not use a 'Print to PDF' option!
Is a PDF really necessary?
PDFs often introduce barriers to assistive technology users. While it's certainly possible to create accessible PDFs, it's also worth considering whether the document you're working on really needs to be distributed as a PDF.
Thinking about alt text by way of Dungeons and Dragons
If you're struggling with how to think about writing alt text for images (including graphs, charts, equations, and so on), get a little bit geeky and think like a Dungeons and Dragons game master!
Alt Text in Microsoft Outlook
Alternative text descriptions, often abbreviated as “alt text”, describe the content or purpose of an image so that users with visual disabilities can still understand the purpose of the image. Alt text can be very simple or quite complex, depending on the image and how it is being used.
Alt Text in Microsoft PowerPoint
Alternative text descriptions, often abbreviated as “alt text”, describe the content or purpose of an image so that users with visual disabilities can still understand the purpose of the image. Alt text can be very simple or quite complex, depending on the image and how it is being used.
Canva (and others) and Accessibility
Canva and similar online document creation tools produce inaccessible PDF files. While they can still be useful for creating smaller single-page graphics to be used in email marketing or print-only flyers, they are not recommended for more complex multi-page PDF documents being distributed electronically. I recommend using Word and its accessibility features (or, if you have the knowledge, Adobe InDesign) to create documents being distributed electronically.
Descriptive Link Text
When adding links in documents that will be distributed electronically, the addresses (URLs) should be linked (clickable) and embedded with descriptive text instead of presented 'bare' (exposing the full URL).