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Access Adobe Acrobat

Many of the tests described below require the full version of Adobe Acrobat. Penn State faculty and staff can request a free license at adobe.psu.edu.

Note: Adobe Acrobat is available in either the Adobe Acrobat license or the Creative Cloud license.

Set Up Adobe Acrobat

Multiple tools such as the Tags Panel, Order Panel, the Accessibility Report and others are required to test for accessibility. The WebAim Setting up Adobe Acrobat page has detailed information.

Protocol Summary

Below are the steps used to test PDFs in Adobe Acrobat.

All PDFs

  1. Is the text of the body content an image or selectable text? – If words cannot be copied and pasted, it’s likely part of an image. See the OCR page for details on testing and repair tools.
  2. Check for Tags – This is a two part test.
    1. Does the file display tags in the Tags panel? See WebAim’s information on setting up Adobe Acrobat for information on the tags and other panels.
    2. If yes, are the tags correctly used? The tags should include headings, image alt text and table headers. See this page from Harvard Digital Accessibility for examples of proper tagging.
  3. Check Color Contrast and Usage
    1. Is all use of color compliant with contrast guidelines?
    2. Is color coding supplemented appropriately?
  4. Check Reading Order in both the Tags panel and the Order panel. Make sure there are no differences in order.
    Note: The two tests are needed because not all screen readers are configured the same way.
  5. Run the Accessibility Report in Adobe Acrobat.
  6. Run a screenreader test as needed. The screen reader should be done with JAWS, NVDA or VoiceOver with the PDF open in Adobe Acrobat Reader. The internal screen reader in Adobe Acrobat does not output the same results.
    Note: Tests of sample documents can be requested by contacting accessibility@psu.edu.

PDF Forms

In addition to the tests above, you should check the following within your forms. See WebAIM’s Accessible Forms in Acrobat for detailed instructions.

  1. Do all form fields have a visible tooltip hint? Note: The tooltip is announced on a screen reader.
  2. Is the reading order of the text correct? The reading order of text and form fields should be verified in the Tags panel and the Order panel.
  3. Is the tabbing order correct? This can be verified by tabbing through the form and in the Fields panel within the Prepare forms tool.

Generating Accessible PDFs

Reparing PDFs

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Last Update: May 17, 2024