Tips for Making Your PDFs Accessible & ADA Compliant: Adobe Acrobat Tutorial

  • Document Title: Add a title and description to the PDF
  • Add tags: Add metadata to the PDF that describes its structure (headings, lists, tables, links) so assistive technology can interpret it.
  • Reading Order: Ensuring the content flows in a logical order for screen readers.
  • Alternative Text for Images: Providing text descriptions of images so people who cannot see them understand their content.
  • Hyperlinks: Making sure links have descriptive text (not just “click here”).
  • Use Optical Character Recognition (OCR): If the PDF contains scanned text, use OCR to convert it to machine-readable text.
  • Tables: Adding proper table headers and data structure.
  • Use color contrast: Prioritize high contrast when choosing text and background colors.
  • Set the language: Set the language of the PDF to the appropriate language.
  • Use bookmarks: Bookmarks provide navigational aid – use them on PDFs longer than 9 pages.
Adobe Acrobat - animated tutorial on how to add document properties ADA

Adobe Acrobat: How to add document properties

Go to File > Properties.

  • In the Document Properties window:

Under the Description tab, fill in:

  • Title
  • Author
  • Subject
  • Keywords

These help screen readers and assistive technologies better understand your document.

Animated tutorial in Adobe Acrobat: how to add language to PDF

Adobe Acrobat: How to set the language

Go to File > Properties.

  • Click the Advanced tab.
  • Under Reading Options, look for Language.
  • Choose the appropriate language from the dropdown (e.g., English, French, Spanish, etc.).

Why this matters: Screen readers use this setting to choose correct pronunciation rules.

Animated tutorial for Adobe Acrobat: how to add tags to documents

Adobe Acrobat: How to add document tags

Go to Tools > Accessibility.

  • If it’s not listed, click “More Tools”, find Accessibility, and click Add.

In the Accessibility panel, click “Autotag Document.”

  • Acrobat will scan the file and automatically apply structural tags (like headings, paragraphs, lists, etc.).

Autotagging works best with clean, well-formatted documents.

Animated tutorial for Adobe Acrobat how to adjust security for ADA

Adobe Acrobat: Adjust security for ADA

Go to File > Properties.

  • Click the Security tab.

Look at Security Method:

  • If it says “No Security” — that’s ideal for accessibility.

If you need Password Security…

  • Choose Password Security.
  • Under Permissions, DO NOT check “Restrict editing and printing of the document”.
  • Make sure “Enable text access for screen reader devices for the visually impaired” is checked.
  • Click OK and enter the password (if prompted) to confirm changes.
Animated tutorial for Adobe Acrobat: how to add alt text to images

Adobe Acrobat: How to add alt text to images

Go to Tools > Accessibility.

  • If it’s not listed:

Click “More Tools”.

  • Find Accessibility and click “Add”.

In the Accessibility panel, click “Set Alternate Text.”

  • Acrobat will cycle through all images or figures in your document.

For each image:

  • Enter a meaningful description of the image in the text field.
  • Example: “Photo of a student using a wheelchair entering a classroom”
  • If the image is decorative only, check “Decorative figure”.

Keep alt text concise but descriptive — about 1–2 sentences max.

Animated tutorial walking through the steps of doing an accessibility check in Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat: How to use the accessibility checker

Go to Tools > Accessibility.

  • If it’s not listed:

Click “More Tools”.

  • Find Accessibility and click “Add”.

In the Accessibility panel, click “Full Check” (or “Accessibility Check” in some versions).

  • A new window titled Accessibility Checker Options will appear.

Under Report Options:

  • Leave “Create accessibility report” checked.
  • Under Checking Options, make sure everything is checked (especially these):
    • Document
    • Page Content
    • Forms
    • Alternate Text
    • Tables
  • Click Start Checking.

A panel called Accessibility Checker will open on the left side of the screen. You’ll see:

  • Passed: Elements that are compliant.
  • Needs Manual Check: Acrobat can’t verify this — you’ll need to review.
  • Failed: Issues that need to be fixed.

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