1. Creating Accessible PDFs
July 2016
Creating Accessible PDFs
Gaeir Dietrich
Director High Tech Center Training Unit of the California Community Colleges

2. Creating Accessible PDF
July 2016
PDF Defined
Portable document format (PDF)
Reads the same on any computer
Looks like the book
May be text-based (searchable) or graphical (e.g., a scan)

3. Creating Accessible PDF
July 2016
Types of PDF Documents
Text-based
Text can be selected
Searchable
Graphical
Picture of text (i.e., a graphic)
Text cannot be selected
Use text-select tool to tell the difference

4. Image-based vs. Text-based
Creating Accessible PDF
July 2016
Image-based vs. Text-based
Scanned PDFs are pictures of text
Computers cannot read a picture
Documents are not e-text unless the computer can see the letters as text
Text can be highlighted with the mouse
Text can be selected a letter / word at a time
Text can be searched 4
* Access to IT 4

5. PDFs Need to be Text-based
Creating Accessible PDF
July 2016
PDFs Need to be Text-based
Searchable PDFs are text-based
Not scans or “pictures” of text
If you scan, you need to run Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to obtain text
If you start from a Word document, you will have text
Now you just need to ensure the PDF will be accessible 5
* Access to IT 5

6. Tagged PDF Simple with Adobe Pro Adds reading order and structure
Enhances readability
But don’t be surprised if JAWS users still want a Word document
Possible to remediate, but easier if included from the start
10/19/2017

7. Tools for Processing PDFs
Adobe Acrobat Professional
Word to PDF
Check on College Buys for discount
Good OCR program
To process scanned documents
Abbyy FineReader
Nuance OmniPage

8. Non-Adobe Alternative
Foxit
Lots of good reviews
Does OCR
Easy to use

9. How Accessible Is It? Accessible PDFs will be… Text-based (searchable)
Tagged
Have logical reading order

10. Where Did It Come From?
If PDF documents are being generated from Word, Open Office, or InDesign, learn first to work with the tools built into those programs
A well-crafted document should have little to no remediation required!

11. Tips
When creating a PDF from another program create alt text for all graphics that are not simply “decorative”
Mark decorative elements when create the PDF
Before doing additional work within the PDF, make sure the document is final

12. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
WCAG 2.0

13. In a Nutshell: Four Guidelines
Perceivable
Operable
Understandable
Robust
So POUR yourself into your work. ;-)
10/19/2017

14. Perceivable Make sure pictures (graphics) have text descriptions
Alt text or alt tag
Use structure
Allows for ease of reformatting
Use good contrast
Make sure that text can be distinguished easily from the background
10/19/2017

15. Operable Make sure everything works from the keyboard
Make sure the tab order is logical
Do not require a mouse
Make content easy to find and navigate
Use logical headings
Make sure header rows in tables are clearly marked
10/19/2017

16. Understandable Write clearly Define terms Spell out acronyms
Always write out the first time used
10/19/2017

17. Robust
Use good design to ensure that the document will work with all assistive technology
Not just JAWS
Provide multiple formats
PDF and RTF
10/19/2017

18. Adobe Acrobat Pro is your friend!
MS Word to PDF
Adobe Acrobat Pro is your friend!

19. Starting from Word Did you make your Colored LIST? √ Links √ Images
√ Styles
√ Tables

20. Before You Convert Name links properly Briefly describe images
Use styles to format the document
Mark the header row in tables
Watch your color contrast…
And THEN convert!

21. Create PDF and Run Action
Install Adobe Acrobat Pro
From the Word ribbon choose Create PDF and Run Action
10/19/2017

22. Create Accessible PDF
10/19/2017

23. In Acrobat Pro
Run the “Make Accessible” Wizard
Green “Start” button

24. When in doubt… Run the wizard!
Action > Make Accessible
It automatically fixes a host of accessibility problems!

25. Checking in Acrobat Tags Tags are really important for access!
View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Tags
Tags are really important for access!
10/19/2017

26. No Tags? Tools > Accessibility > Add tags
And tags can be changed by right-clicking on them
10/19/2017

27. Reading Order: TURO
Occasionally a document will not read in the proper order
Accessibility > Touch Up Reading Order
The order panel is also an option
10/19/2017

28. Table Inspector
If a table has a column header, you will add it with the Table Inspector.
From Touch Up Reading Order, select table then Inspector
10/19/2017

29. Accessible Documents
For maximum accessibility include both the PDF and the Word document online
PDF and RTF
If concerned about security with Word, can apply permissions
10/19/2017

30. Processing PDFs

31. Remediation of Graphical PDFs
No text available
PDF is only a picture of text
Only remediation is to run OCR

32. Remediation of Text-Based PDF
First step…Run the wizard!

33. Customize Quick Tools Click on the “gear”
View > Show/hide > Toolbar Items > Quick Tools

34. Creating Accessible PDF
July 2016
Manipulating the PDF
Cropping
Enlargement for printing
Tiling
Extracting/deleting pages
Combining/inserting pages
Text extraction
Works best with text-based PDF
Does have built-in OCR capability

35. Quick Tools Menu

36. Customize

37. Cropping Tools > Pages > Crop Shortcut: C
(Please note: This shortcut brings up the mouse-driven cropping tool—must double click to open the dialog box!)

38. Crop Tool

39. Crop Toolbox

40. Enlarging Choose paper size/printer File > Print > Size…to Fit
Shortcut: Ctrl + P (tab through)
Tip: Crop document before enlarging

41. Print to Fit

42. Creating Accessible PDF
July 2016
Tiling
Choose paper size/printer
File > Print > Poster > Tile Scale and Overlap
Shortcut: Ctrl + P (tab through)
Tip: Crop document before tiling

43. Enlarge with Tiling

44. Combining
File > Pages > Insert OR
Create > Combine files

45. Inserting Pages

46. Combining Pages

47. Extracting Pages Tools > Pages > Extract
Delete Shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + D
Extract Pages Shortcut: Alt V + T + P (opens Pages pane; F6 focuses in pane and can arrow down)

48. Extraction Tool

49. Tips for Extracting Chapters
Crop on complete file before extracting
Work on a copy!!!!!
Extract from end toward front!
Use table of contents to help
Place focus on first page of chapter to extract (beginning with last)

50. Starting from the Back

51. Auto Extracting Text File > Save As > MS Word
Retains styles and paragraphs
File > Save As > More options…
Text (Accessible)
Lose styles, places hard returns at end of line
Text (Plain)
Lose styles, keeps paragraphs
Shortcut: Alt F + A

52. Save As Options

53. Better Text Extraction
Creating Accessible PDF
July 2016
Better Text Extraction
OCR programs analyze text and structure
Acrobat Pro has built-in OCR, but other programs provide more control
Can control which text to include 53

54. More Control over Text For graphical PDFs Or
To maintain more control over extracting text from text-based PDFs
Use an OCR program!

55. Processing Graphical PDFs
Creating Accessible PDF
July 2016
Processing Graphical PDFs
Must run optical character recognition (OCR)
Computers cannot read pictures
OCR programs recognize the “characters” in the picture
How you process the file depends on the end format the student wants!

56. OCR Process Details Crop before loading into OCR engine
Turn on multiple languages as needed
If doing math, possibly turn on Greek
Only turn on the languages you need
Edit in the OCR program
Some OCR programs have font matching features
Save to Word

57. Creating Accessible PDF
July 2016
Converting Files
Alt Media for Ebooks * 57 57

58. Magic Conversion Tool Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/
Converts to and from many formats
Fairly intuitive
Free!

59. Resource Info Gaeir Dietrich gdietrich@htctu.net 408-996-6047