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Creating accessibility and tagging PDF files using Acrobat X

Learn about the tools and methods for adding tags and creating accessible PDF files using Acrobat X Pro.

By Kurt Foss – March 10, 2011

In order for a PDF document to be accessible, you must use authoring applications capable of delivering a document's structure to Acrobat. This sample chapter from the Acrobat X PDF Bible explains the tools and methods for adding tags and creating accessible PDF files.

Creating Accessibility and Tagging PDF Files in Adobe Acrobat X

This summary is excerpted from chapter 23 of The Acrobat X PDF Bible by Ted Padova, published by Wiley. Follow the link further below to download the complete 16-page sample chapter.

Adobe Acrobat is compliant with U.S. federal code regulating document accessibility for vision- and motion-challenged persons. This means that screen readers can intelligently interpret the PDFs you create; in other words, PDF files can be read aloud in a reading order as a sighted person would read a document. Through an extensive set of keyboard shortcuts available in Acrobat, almost anyone with vision or motion challenges can share your documents and read them.

In order for a document to be accessible, you must use authoring applications capable of delivering a document's structure to Acrobat. You need to know something about the internal structure of documents and which programs to use to create the structure required by Acrobat to make a document accessible. Not all the content in a document travels through the PDF-creation process with the information necessary to make a document completely accessible. Therefore, you need to perform some work in Acrobat to either add accessibility or to polish up a document for delivery to a screen reader in a form that makes sense to the user.

In chapter 23 of The Acrobat X PDF Bible, you will learn how to check documents for tags and accessibility, add additional tags and arrange reading orders. Topics covered include:

Using screen readers can interpret accessible PDF files and create audio output for people with vision and motion challenges.

Using Adobe PDFMaker for Microsoft products, version 2000 or higher, including Word, Excel, Visio and so on; Adobe PageMaker 7 and higher; and Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe LiveCycle Designer, Adobe InDesign 2.0 and higher are capable of creating tagged and accessible PDF forms.

Adding tags to PDF documents from a menu command within Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro and Pro Extended.

Checking files for accessibility with the Quick Check command in Adobe Reader, Acrobat Standard, and Acrobat Pro and Pro Extended or with a Full Check in Acrobat Pro and Pro Extended.

Tagging documents so they contain a structure tree. Elements in the tree locate respective elements in the document if you enable the Highlight Content menu command.