The best way to check the accessibility of documents is to use that your readers will use. Even if you do not have access to those tools, Adobe Acrobat provides an automated way to check the accessibility of a PDF file. The Full Check/Accessibility Check feature in Acrobat checks a PDF for many of the characteristics of accessible PDFs. You can choose which accessibility problems to look for and how you want the results reported.
- Choose Tools > Accessibility.
- The Accessibility toolset is displayed in the secondary toolbar.
- In the secondary toolbar, click Full Check/Accessibility Check.
- The Accessibility Checker Options dialog box is displayed.
- In the Report Options section, select options for how you want to view the results. You can save the results as an HTML file on your system, or attach the results file to the document itself.
- Select a page range if you prefer to check individual pages of a document
- Select one or more of the Checking Options.
- Click Start Checking. The results are displayed in the Accessibility Checker panel on the left, which also has helpful links and hints for repairing issues. If you created a report in step 2, the results are available in the selected folder. Because the Full Check/Accessibility Check feature cannot distinguish between essential and nonessential content types, some issues it reports don’t affect readability. It’s a good idea to review all issues to determine which ones require correction.
The report displays one of the following statuses for each rule check:- Passed: The item is accessible.
- Skipped By User: Rule was not checked because it wasn’t selected in the Accessibility Checker Options dialog box.
- Needs Manual Check: The Full Check/Accessibility Check feature couldn’t check the item automatically. Verify the item manually.
- Failed: The item didn’t pass the accessibility check.
NOTE:
In addition to Full Check/Accessibility Check, Acrobat provides other methods to check PDF accessibility:
- Use Reflow view to quickly check the reading order.
- Use Read Out Loud to experience the document as readers who use the text-to-speech conversion tool experience it.
- Save the document as accessible text and then read the saved text file in a word-processing application. This exercise enables you to emulate the end-user experience of readers who use a braille printer to read the document.
- Use the Reading Order tool, Order, Tags, and Content panels to examine the structure, reading order, and contents of a PDF.
