Creating Accessible PDF Documents, Level II ASPA Web Communications and New Media Division

Creating Section 508 Compliant PDF Documents II Module 1 – Introduction

PDF II Class Introduction  All documents must come into Section 508 compliance. This course has been created to assist document publishers in:  Converting scanned documents to accessible PDFs  Testing and remediating PDF documents for Section 508 Compliance  Forms are a separate topic and will not be addressed in this training

PDF II Class Objectives  After completing this class you will be able to:  Create PDFs from scanned documents  Combine multiple documents into one accessible PDF document  Test PDFs for accessibility  Remediate existing PDFs

Accessible PDF Characteristics  Searchable text  Alternative text descriptions  Fonts that allow characters to be extracted to text  Reading order and document structure tags

Accessible PDF Characteristics  Interactive form fields (not covered in this training)  Navigational aids  Document language  Security that doesn’t interfere with assistive software (e.g. not password protected)

Use Document Properties as Best Practices  Properties Summary tab  Shows document creator and ownership  Gives author of the document (OPDIV)  Further contact information

Overview Summary  There are common characteristics that make a PDF document accessible  Scanned PDFs can be made accessible with some difficulty  All existing documents must be remediated, replaced, or archived to become Section 508 compliant  Tables and multiple-source PDF documents require special handling

Creating Section 508 Compliant PDF Documents II Module 2: Creating PDFs from Scanned Documents

Working with Scanned Documents  Scanning documents should be avoided whenever possible  Scanned documents are problematic because, in most cases, they do not contain actual text  Optical Character Recognition (OCR) must be performed to create a text layer

Steps to Creating Accessible Scanned Documents 1.Use Adobe Acrobat Professional to convert the document to PDF 2.Enable text recognition by using OCR from the Document menu 3.Correct OCR suspects from the OCR menu 4.Create reading order by tagging 5.Correct any errors in tags 6.Test for accessibility

Create PDFs from Scanner 1.Select File > Create PDF > From Scanner from Acrobat’s main menu, or choose From Scanner on the Create Adobe PDF menu on the toolbar

Create PDFs from Scanner 2.Select the following options: a.New PDF Document b.Make Searchable (Run OCR) c.Make Accessible 3.Select the Options button next to the Make Searchable (Run OCR) checkbox

Create PDFs from Scanner 4.The Recognize Text – Settings dialog box: a.Set Primary OCR Language to English b.Set PDF’s Output Style to recognize Formatted Text and Graphics c.Set Downsample Images rate of 600 dpi d.Select the OK button

Create PDFs from Scanner 5.Select Scan 6.Now you are ready to apply Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to the scanned document

Create PDFs from Scanner - OCR  Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software enables you to search, correct, and copy the text in a scanned PDF  If you do not apply OCR when you create a PDF by scanning a paper document, you can apply OCR to the PDF later if you have set the scanner resolution at 72 Dpi and higher  This is extremely useful when remediating legacy documents

Create PDFs from Scanner - OCR 1.Select Document > OCR Text Recognition > Find First OCR Suspect to repair all OCR suspects

Create PDFs from Scanner - OCR 2.Once first suspect is found, continue to find other suspects by selecting Find Next button

Create PDFs from Scanner - OCR  Often poorly scanned characters are not recognized in OCR and are tagged as figures  It is helpful to run a suspect scan for artifacts and images  Artifacts are images/objects that do not and should not appear in the content tree

Create PDFs from Scanner - OCR 3.Tag the document, adjust the reading order and test the document for accessibility 4.Save the accessible document after making all necessary changes

Reading Order  The first step to making the scanned PDF accessible is to look at the reading order via the TouchUp Reading Order Tool  Reading order will show:  The order of content  The garbled information e.g. characters show as a figure even though they are text

Reflow the New PDF To Visually Check The New Reading Order  A quick way to check the reading order of a document is to view it in the Reflow view  Choose View > Zoom > Reflow or Press Ctrl+4 (Windows)

Correct Reading Order  Correct reflow problems with the Content tab when a PDF can’t be corrected by using the TouchUp Reading Order tool  You can damage a PDF by editing content objects, make sure that you’re familiar with PDF structure before you make any changes  There is no “UNDO”!

Problems in Scanned PDFs  Non-text elements such as smudges, page borders, and/or art that do not reflect content should be eliminated from the text layer  This is done by tagging these items as artifacts  Non-text elements tagged as artifacts are removed from the text layer and ignored by assistive technology

Tagging Artifacts  To search for artifacts, within the Tags panel select Options > Find  A window will appear with several search options  Artifact is the default search in the Find field  If there are any artifacts, the search will identify them and allow you to change them to other elements

Tagging Artifacts  To change a tag to an artifact in the tags panel, right click on the item  Select Change Tag to Artifact

Remediating Artifacts  Here is the bottom of a scanned page  Decorative line  Page number

Artifacts - Show Reading Order  Here is the same item on the page using the Reading Order tool  Notice that the two items have been put in the same container

Artifacts – TouchUp Content Properties  View > Navigation Panels > Content

Artifacts - Remediation TouchUp Reading Order Tool 1.Draw a box around the content 2.Select text  We want to add the page number as alternate text

Artifacts – TouchUp Content Properties 3.View > Navigation Panels > Content

Artifacts – TouchUp Properties 4.Right click on the Container 5.Select Properties

Artifacts – TouchUp Properties 6.The TouchUp Properties Menu box appears a.Select the Tag tab b.Enter the text in the Actual Text box 7.Press Edit Tag button

Artifacts – TouchUp Properties 8.The new text appears in the ActualText field 9.Select the OK button 10.The new text does not appear in the content container, but can be read by Read Out Loud or other Assistive Technology

Delete Artifact Containers  When an artifact serves no content purpose in the document it can be deleted  Deleting Containers is dangerous as there is no undo feature in Acrobat Professional  Before deleting save the document as another file just in case there is a problem

Words Not Identified  There are no figures in the original document that was scanned

Figure to Character Remediation  When words are scanned as figures, remediation is possible  Follow a similar process to the one that was delineated for adding a page number  Notice in the following example a figure has been inserted in the middle of a text line

Figure to Character Remediation 1.The word appears but it can not be read by a screen reader 2.Use the TouchUp Reading Order tool 3.Draw a box around the word to select it 4.Select the Background button from the TouchUp Reading Order tool 5.The Figure tag disappears

Figure to Character Remediation 6.In the Tag tab we need to add the missing word and punctuation 7.Right click on the appropriate Container

Figure to Character Remediation 7.Type in the full text in the ActualText field including the missing word and punctuation 8.Select the Edit Tag button

Figure to Character Remediation 9.The full text appears in the ActualText field 10.Select the OK button

Module 2 – Creating PDFs From Scanned Documents  We have completed Module 2  We have discussed the Steps required to create a Section 508 compliant scanned PDF  We have discussed how to remediate items that are:  Artifacts  Unidentified text

Module 3 Combining Multiple Documents in PDF Creating Section 508 Compliant PDF Documents II

Combining PDF content  While you can easily merge files of different types into a single PDF, this results in an more difficult document to make accessible  It is suggested that you merge files if possible into a single Microsoft Word document  Make the Word document accessible and convert it to PDF  Then test the PDF for accessibility and remediate any problems

Touchup Reading Order From a Word Format Document  Start with a Microsoft Word Document: 1.Make sure the Word document is structured:  Headers, Sub headers, list, formatted tables  Table of Contents  Internal Navigation Tools  Images have alternative text  Page numbers have been inserted with the Page Number tool  90% of making the new PDF accessible is done 2.Create PDF by using the Microsoft Word Convert to Adobe PDF tool

Touchup Reading Order From a Word Format Document  Open the new PDF document in Adobe Acrobat Professional 1.Select the Order Panel, review and adjust the reading order as necessary 2.Demote artifacts to background 3.Go to the Tags panel and edit tags 4.Test the document for accessibility 5.Remediate document as necessary

Adobe Acrobat: Create a PDF from multiple files 1.From the File menu select Combine Files

Create a PDF from multiple files 2.Select the Add Files icon in the Combine Files window

Create a PDF from multiple files 3.Select the files you want to combine using the control key when selecting multiple files 4.Select the Add Files button

Create a PDF from multiple files 5.Adjust the order of files as desired, and then choose a file size and conversion setting 6.Select the Next button

Create a PDF from multiple files 7.Select Merge Files Into A Single PDF 8.Select Create

Choosing to create a PDF from multiple files in Adobe Acrobat  Since you have not created the document in Word all document navigation will need to be created in Adobe Acrobat  Pages will need to be numbered  Table of Contents may need to be created  Documents exceeding nine pages must have Bookmarks  Tags will be out of order and there will need to be considerable retagging for the document to flow

Issues when Creating a PDF from multiple files  Pages whose tags are out of order in the logical structure tree can cause problems for screen readers  Screen readers read tags in sequence down the tree, and they might not reach the tags for an inserted page until the end of the tree  To fix this problem, you need to rearrange the tag tree to put large groups of tags in the same reading order as the pages themselves  To avoid the need for this advanced step, plan so that you always insert pages to the end of a PDF, building the document from front to back in sequence

Issues when Creating a PDF from multiple files  When you insert, replace, or delete pages, Acrobat accepts existing tags into the tag tree of the consolidated PDF in the following manner:  Insert pages - adds the tags for the new pages to the end of the tag tree, even if you insert the new pages at the beginning or the middle of the document  Replace pages - adds the tags from the incoming pages to the end of the tag tree, even if you replace pages at the beginning or the middle of the document. Acrobat retains the tags (if any) for the replaced pages  Delete pages - retains the tags of the deleted pages

Create a PDF from multiple files  Remember – you will need to:  Tag the document  You likely will have to delete the entire existing Tag Tree  Perform testing  Do necessary remediation

Delete the Tag Tree  To delete all tags:  Highlight the parent tag in the Tags Panel  Press the Delete key

Add New Tags 1.Use Acrobat’s Add Tags to Document tool to automatically tag the document or 2.Use the Touchup Reading Order tool to manually add tags to the document and establish the logical reading order

Module 4: Testing and Remediating PDFs for Accessibility Creating Section 508 Compliant PDF Documents II

Remediate an Existing PDF  Before deciding to remediate, consider: 1.if the document information is now obsolete, then it should be deleted 2.if the document is old but still of value, then it should be archived 3.if an Accessible HTML version of the PDF is available, and it is: 1.in the same location as the PDF 2.of equivalent functionality (bookmarks, headings, etc) 3.Both the HTML and PDF links are distributed simultaneously (e.g. via message)  In any of these cases, remediation to 508 standards is not necessary

Testing and Remediating PDFs  Scanned PDFs will often provide the biggest challenge  Documents imported from other types of files also must be tested and remediated before they are compliant  Before a PDF is accessible, it must:  Properly tagged  Have a logical reading and tab order  Alternative text must be added to all images and objects  The document must have a specified language

Testing PDFs for Accessibility  To verify that these key conditions are met:  Run Adobe’s Accessibility Full Check  Test with assistive technology used by a person with a disability, or  listen to the PDF by running Adobe Reader’s built- in PDF reader Read Out Loud  Final Acceptance testing for web content is done via assistive technology (e.g. JAWS, Dragon)

Adobe Accessibility Full Check 1.Select Advanced > Accessibility > Full Check

Adobe Accessibility Full Check 2.Select all check boxes in the Checking Options menu 3.This will ensure that the PDF is tested for full accessibility 4.Select Start Checking button

Accessibility Full Check Settings  An Accessibility Report, that provides suggestions for repairing the document, will appear on the screen  If additional help is needed, Press the F1 key to launch Adobe Help Viewer

Manual Checks  Do manual checks even if Accessibility Full Check is passed  Use the Tab Key to test tab order  Use the TouchUp Reading Order tool to visually scan the PDFs reading order  Use assistive technology [such as a screen reader] or the Read Out Loud PDF reader to test reading order

Acrobat Reader - Read Out Loud  Use the built-in PDF reader to test the PDF’s reading order: 1.Open Adobe Acrobat Reader 2.From the View menu select Read Out Loud and then one of the available choices (See the next slide)

Acrobat Reader - Read Out Loud  Read Out Loud must be activated from the View menu  Choices are:  Read This Page Only  Read To End of Document  Pause  Stop

Remediation Starts With Document Structure  For a PDF document to be accessible it must contain the following:  Actual text, scanned images are not accessible  Tags that create the appropriate document structure  Reading order specified for columns and tables  Alternative text for images  PDF tags enable accessibility

Adobe Acrobat: Adjusting Tags  Use the Touchup Reading Order Tool to:  Edit the basic tagged structure of the document  Establish the tab order  Create or adjust reading order  Use the Tags pane to:  Add descriptive text to tags  Add alternative text to Images  Adjust/add table headers  Adjust/add bookmarks  Adjust reading order

Major Remediation  If several document elements have been improperly tagged, it may be easier to delete all tags by highlighting the parent tag in the Tags Panel and pressing the Delete key  Use Acrobat’s Add Tags to Document tool to automatically tag the document or  Use the Touchup Reading Order tool to manually add tags to the document and establish the logical reading order

Manually Adjust Reading Order  The reading order determines the order a screen reader reads document elements  Sometimes Physical View (print view) and Content View (reading order) are not the same  Then reading order needs to be adjusted to match the Physical View

Manually Adjust Reading Order  To change the reading order: 1.From Acrobat’s main menu, select View > Navigation Tabs > Order

Manually Adjust Reading Order  As shown here, once the Order Panel is displayed, numbers will appear on the document, revealing the document’s reading order

Manually Adjust Reading Order 2.Identify the first element that is out of place and in the Order Panel click on the box to the left of the element and drag the element to the proper location 3.Continue this process until all elements are in the proper order

Other Types of Remediation  Adding alternate text  Setting the Document’s Language  Adding Child Tags 1.In the Tags tab, select the parent node in the Tags tree for which you want to create a child tag 2.Choose New Tag from the Options menu 3.Select the appropriate tag type from the Type pop- up menu, or type a custom tag type, name the tag (optional) 4.Then select OK

Two methods to tag Tables 1.Use Scoping and the Table Inspector for simple tables 2.Correct Table Tags manually

Using Scoping and the Table Inspector  To set the scope of a header cell, select the table element and select Table Inspector from the context menu  The table inspector will highlight the cells  Gridlines will not always match the table

Using Scoping and the Table Inspector  Select a header cell (in this example, a column header) and choose Table Cell Properties from the context menu  Select the Header Cell Option  Set Scope to Column or Row

Correct Table Tags Using the Tags Tab  Check table elements 1.In the Tags tab, expand the tags root to view a table tag 2.Select the table tag and verify that it contains one of the following elements:  Table Rows, each of which contains Table Header or Table Data cells ,, and sections, each of which contains Table Rows (The Table Rows contain cells, cells, or both)

Correct Table Tags Using the Tags Tab  Check table elements 3.Do one or more of the following:  If the tag for the table doesn’t contain these elements, but rows, columns, and cells appear in the table in the document pane, use the TouchUp Reading Order tool to select and define the table or individual cells  If the table contains rows that span two or more columns, set ColSpan and RowSpan attributes for these rows in the tag structure  Re-create the table in the authoring application, and then convert it to a tagged PDF

Spanning Columns and Rows  Spanned Rows and Columns occur when  A table has multiple logical levels (as shown below)  A data table has merged cells used as “spacers” or for aesthetics.

Set ColSpan and RowSpan Attributes 1.In the Tags tab, select a or element 2.Choose Properties from the Options menu

Set ColSpan and RowSpan Attributes 3.In the TouchUp Properties dialog box, select the Tag tab, and then select Edit Attribute Objects

Set ColSpan and RowSpan Attributes 4.In the Attributes dialog box select New Item to create a new Attribute Object Dictionary

Set ColSpan and RowSpan Attributes 5.Expand the new dictionary, select the Layout attribute, and then select Change Item

Set ColSpan and RowSpan Attributes 6.Change the Layout value to Table

Set ColSpan and RowSpan Attributes 7.Select the Attribute Object Dictionary, and click New Item

Set ColSpan and RowSpan Attributes 8.In the Add Key And Value dialog box  Type ColSpan or RowSpan in the Key box  Enter the number of columns or rows spanned in the Value box  Choose Integer from the Value Type pop-up menu  Select OK

Adobe Acrobat: Quick Tips  Save PDF files frequently after each significant change, using a different file name  Undo is not an option  Expand all elements in the Order, Content or Tag panel  Create Bookmarks to assist with navigation  Avoid using reverse type or shadow type  When the document is received for testing/remediation, contact information should be provided if document clarification is necessary

Module 4: Testing and Remediating PDFs for Accessibility Review  Setting document language  PDF Tags  Tags for Tables  Tags for column and row spans  Testing a PDF for Accessibility  Adobe Testing  Accessibility Checker  Manual Testing  Tab Order  Assistive Technologies  Screen Reader [Read Out Loud]

Resources – Accessible PDF Creation  Adobe Professional Tutorials  WebAIM  Web Accessibility for All

Resources - Government  Web Communications & New Media Division  Includes policies, checklists, and best practices for HHS document accessibility  Federal Government 508 Policy, Training and Resources

ASPA Web Communications and New Media Division Creating Section 508 Compliant PDF Documents II