Ìý
Word, PDFs & Other Electronic Documents
Electronic documents require special attention to ensure that they are accessible for all users.
5 of the 6 Essential Fixes are required for the accessibility of your documents.
Essentials
Headings
If your email is long, use headings to break up content. Headings communicate the organization of the content and provide the structure for screen readers to “scan” the email. Find out more about accessible headings
Images
- Images must include descriptive alt text
- Images should not contain text
- Find out more about alt text and image use.
Links
Accessible Link Guidelines are basically about making text clear on its own.
Color contrast
Use appropriate color contrast and font sizes.
Contrast is the difference between text color and background color. Learn about color contrast.
AA-Compliance Requirements
Note: It is recommended to avoid or minimize use of PDFs because of the difficulty with adhering to compliance regulations. The regulations listed are the minimum requirements. Please look through resources to advance the accessibility of your PDFs.
❌ Scanned PDFs
Scanned PDFs are a compilation of images; therefore, they are unreadable to most standard screen readers. You can tell if PDF text will be picked up by screen readers if you can select it with your mouse.
Adobe Acrobat Pro
Adobe Acrobat Pro is one tool used to create accessible PDFs. Contact ITS to procure a license for Acrobat Pro.
PDF Fillable Forms
Adobe Acrobat and other PDF software allow users to create fillable PDF forms. Creating accessible forms requires extra work to ensure compliance with accessibility requirements. If the form needs to be a PDF, you can reference .
✅ Additional Do’s
- Use built-in bulleted/numbered lists.
-
Tables should be used only for data, not layout (the fifth essential!). But if you use tables for data:
Make tables using the table feature, not tabs or spaces.
Read left to right, top to bottom.
Include headers for rows and columns (headers repeat on new pages).
Don’t leave blank cells.
Mark all cells as data cells so screen readers can understand them. - Provide meaningful file names: “Class-Schedule.pdf” is better than “Document1.pdf”. Document filename should not contain spaces or special characters.
- Track changes and comments should be removed and turned off.
- Include bookmarks in PDFs longer than nine pages.
- Try to avoid uploading documents with multiple columns of text as screen readers may read across the columns.
- Run the accessibility checker: Word, PowerPoint, and Acrobat all have built-in checkers. It is important to provide a non-PDF version of the document whenever possible.
❌ Don’ts
- Don’t use text boxes or floating objects → they can confuse screen readers.
- Don’t rely only on color to show meaning (e.g., red = bad, green = good).
- Don’t put important text inside images → screen readers can’t read it.
- Don’t go crazy with fonts — keep it simple and readable.
Resources
- LinkedIn Learning includes courses on and .
- . Great explanation of the difficulties of PDF accessibility and recommendations for alternative forms of presenting PDF info on a website.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services .
- . Four-part article series on creating accessible PDFs and PDF forms using Acrobat
- .The built-in Accessibility Checker tool finds accessibility issues in your Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Outlook emails and PowerPoint presentations.