Adobe® Acrobat® X software has a number of features that assist people with disabilities — such as mobility impairments, blindness, and low vision — in their use of Adobe PDF files.
Accessibility features in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader® software fall into two broad categories: features for making existing PDF documents more accessible for reading, and features for creating accessible PDF documents. To create accessible PDF documents, you must use Acrobat, not Reader. Adobe Acrobat X Pro software also offers a number of tools for checking the accessibility of PDF documents and forms.
Making existing PDF files accessible for reading
Creating an accessible PDF document directly from an authoring application is the best way to make PDF files accessible. However, Acrobat X provides a complete set of tools for making existing PDF files accessible.
No matter which method you use to make PDF files accessible, you'll probably need to use Acrobat to touch up the tagging and reading order for complex page layouts or unusual page elements. For example, the Add Tags To Document command can't always distinguish between instructive figures and decorative page elements such as borders, lines, or background elements. It may incorrectly tag all of these as figures. Similarly, the Add Tags To Document command may erroneously tag graphical characters within text, such as drop caps, as figures instead of including them in the tag that represents the rest of the text block. Such errors can clutter the tag tree and complicate the reading order on which assistive technology relies.
Although Adobe Acrobat X Standard software provides some functionality for making existing PDF files accessible, you must use Adobe Acrobat X Pro software to perform certain tasks — such as editing reading order or editing document structure tags — that may be necessary to make some PDF documents and forms accessible.
Setting accessibility reading preferences
Acrobat provides several preferences that help make the reading of PDF files more accessible for visually impaired and motion-impaired users, including preferences that control how PDF files appear on the screen and are read by a screen reader.
Most preferences related to accessibility are available through the Accessibility Setup Assistant, which provides on screen instructions for setting them. Some preferences that affect accessibility aren't available through the Accessibility Setup Assistant, including preferences in the Reading, Forms, and Multimedia categories. You can set all preferences in the Preferences dialog box.
Features for making PDF files accessible for reading
- Ability to add text to scanned pages to improve accessibility
- Tools for creating accessible PDF forms
- Conversion of untagged to tagged PDF files
- Tools for editing reading order and document structure
- Security setting that allows screen readers to access text while preventing users from copying, printing, editing, and extracting text
- Action Wizard to make PDF Accessible
Creating accessible PDF files from popular applications
Whenever possible, return to the source file and add accessibility features in the authoring application prior to exporting to PDF. In many cases, you can create tagged PDF files from within an authoring application, such as Adobe FrameMaker®, InDesign®, and LiveCycle® Designer software. Other applications include Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.org. Creating tags in the authoring application generally provides better results than adding tags later in Acrobat.
PDFMaker, included in Acrobat X Pro and Acrobat X Standard, provides conversion settings that let you create tagged PDF files directly from sources such as Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word and other popular word processing and desktop publishing applications.
Setting accessibility reading preferences
Acrobat X and Adobe Reader X provide several preferences that help make the reading of PDF files more accessible for visually impaired and motion-impaired users, including preferences that control how PDF files appear on the screen and are read by a screen reader.
Most preferences related to accessibility are available through the Accessibility Setup Assistant, which provides on-screen instructions for setting them. Some preferences that affect accessibility aren't available through the Accessibility Setup Assistant, including preferences in the Reading, Forms, and Multimedia categories. You can set all preferences in the Preferences dialog box.
Features for making PDF files accessible for reading
- Support for screen readers and screen magnifiers
- Preferences and commands to optimize output for assistive software and devices, such as saving as accessible text for a Braille printer
- Preferences and commands to make navigation of PDF files more accessible, such as automatic scrolling and opening PDF files to the last page read
- Accessibility Setup Assistant for easy setting of most preferences related to accessibility
- Keyboard alternates to mouse actions
- Reflow capability to temporarily present the text of a PDF file in a single, easy-to-read column
- Read Out Loud text-to-speech conversion
- Automatic launch of Optical Character Recognition for scanned PDF documents (not available in Reader X)
Checking accessibility with Acrobat X
The best way to test the accessibility of a document is to attempt to use the document with assistive technology. However, even if you don't have a screen reader or Braille printer, Acrobat X provides several methods for checking the accessibility of a PDF file.
- Use Quick Check to check for document structure tags, searchable text, and appropriate security settings for accessibility. This method is often the best way to check for accessibility before attempting to use a PDF file.
- Use Full Check to perform a more thorough check for many characteristics of accessible PDF files, such as the use of fonts that can be mapped reliably to Unicode text.
- Use Reflow view to quickly check reading order.
- Use Read Out Loud to experience the document as it will be perceived by readers who use this text-to-speech conversion tool.
- Save the document as accessible text, and then read the saved text file in a word processing application to experience the document as it will be perceived by readers who use a Braille printer.
- Use the TouchUp Reading Order tool, Tags tab, and Content tab to examine the structure, reading order, and contents of a PDF file in detail
- Use Forms Editing mode to examine the Tab order and form field properties of interactive PDF forms.
