PDFs can be one of the most inaccessible forms of digital documents. A PDF should not be used to present digital content when that content could instead be presented as a web page or email. In some cases, a PDF is required for certain uses. When created with accessibility in mind, a PDF can be inclusive to people who may need to read the digital format.
When you need to create a PDF from a Word document, not all accessibility from the Word document will carry over to the PDF. Some extra steps need to be taken to ensure the PDF is accessible.
Creating an Accessible Word Document
Before creating the PDF, you will need to compose a document in Microsoft Word. Please refer to the following articles on how to create an accessible Word document:
How to Create an Accessible Word Document
How to Create Accessible Descriptive Hyperlinks
How to Add Alt Text to Images in Word
How to Use the Accessibility Checker in Microsoft Word
How to Add Accessibility Properties in Microsoft Word
Converting a Word Document to an Accessible PDF
Add a Document Title
When a Word document is converted to a PDF, the document title will be missing unless you create a title in the document's properties. Screen readers utilize the document title of a PDF and will throw an error if it is missing.
How to Add a Document Title in Word
- In Microsoft Word, go to File > Info
- Under the "Properties" column on the right, look for "Title".
- Next to "Title" enter an easy-to-read title.
- Save the document.
How to Add a Document Title in Adobe Acrobat (if not set in Word)
- If you do not have the original Word document, you can still set a document title for the PDF file in the Adobe Acrobat application.
- Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat.
- In the "Search tools" textbox on the right, start typing “Accessibility”.
- Select "Accessibility Check".
- The Accessibility Checker panel opens on the left and displays the accessibility issues Acrobat found with your PDF.
- Click the ">" carrot next to "Document (# issues)".
- In the Document section, right-click "Title – Failed", then choose "Fix" from the context menu.
- If no title was set in the original source, a description dialog window appears. The top section shows the missing title.
- Uncheck the "Leave As Is" checkbox and enter an easy-to-read title.
- Click OK to set the title.
- Save the PDF to keep your changes.
Saving the Word Document as an Accessible PDF
Note: Do not use the "Save as Adobe PDF" or "Print to PDF" features in Microsoft Word. These options will not create an accessible PDF and should be avoided. To save an accessible PDF, use the following instructions:
- Go to File > Save As > Browse and choose where to save your PDF in the file browser.
- In the Save As window, change the "Save as type" to "PDF (*.pdf)".
- Toggle the "Open file after publishing" checkbox to evaluate the PDF after it is saved.
- Select the "Options" button, and review the "Include non-printing information" section to ensure the following checkboxes are checked:
- Create bookmarks using: Headings: A proper heading structure is important for document accessibility. See the article How to create heading hierarchy for more information.
- Document properties: Ensures properties like document title are saved in the new PDF.
- Document structure tags for accessibility: Ensures the resulting PDF includes tags, making the PDF readable by a screen reader.
- Select OK to save the options.
- Select Save to convert your Word document to an accessible PDF.
- The newly saved PDF will open.
Checking Accessibility in Adobe Acrobat Pro
Note: Checking PDF accessibility can often be complicated and time-consuming. The following instructions will provide an overview of the basics of checking PDF accessibility to ensure your Word document was successfully transferred with accessibility.
Note: To use the accessibility check tool, you need a premium subscription to Adobe Acrobat Pro.
- In the "Tools" panel in the right sidebar, choose "Accessibility".
- You can also go to the "Tools" tab at the top left and choose "Accessibility".
- Choose "Accessibility Check".
- Click the "Start Checking" button.
- In the Accessibility Checker panel that just popped up on the left any issues are displayed in bold. You can expand items by clicking the ">" carrot drop down button.
- If there are no accessibility issues with an item, it will be marked with a green checkmark.
- Issues that need to be fixed are marked with a red circle and an X.
- Right click on the error and choose "Fix" if possible.
- For more information about the error, you can also right click and choose "Explain". This will take you to an Adobe webpage explaining the error.
- The blue circle with question marks indicates that you need to do a manual check of the issue in question. The Adobe program cannot check that element for accessibility automatically. For example, logical reading order and color contrast need to be checked manually.
Checking Logical Reading Order and Heading Hierarchy
- On the left sidebar in Acrobat, choose the Tags icon.
- If you don't see the Tags icon, select the "View" menu, hover over "Show/hide", then hover over "Navigation panes" and select "Tags".
- Expand the Tags tree by clicking the ">" carrot.
- Select the "Options" icon and ensure "Highlight Content" is selected.
- Select the first tag in the list and confirm that the element highlighted is the first item in the document. From there, use your down arrow key to traverse the list of tags in order. When going from one tag to the next, ensure that the elements that are highlighted in the document follow the logical reading order of the document. If the tags are out of order, you can click and drag the tag to the proper place in the tags tree.
Color Contrast
The other manual check that should be performed is checking color contrast.
If you want to use another high contrast color combination:
- Choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Acrobat: Preferences (Mac OS).
- Click Accessibility.
- Select Replace Document Colors, and then select Use High-Contrast Colors. Choose the color combination that you want from the drop-down list, and then click OK.
For more information on accessible color contrast, please see the following articles:
How to Check Color Contrast with A11Y
How to Add and Use High Color Contrast
How to Check Color Contrast with Colour Contrast Analyser (CCA)
Additional Resources
- Accessibility and Assistive Technology Resources
- Create and verify PDF accessibility (Acrobat Pro) - Adobe Support
- Make your Word documents accessible to people with disabilities - Microsoft Support
- Create Accessible PDFs - Microsoft Support
- Microsoft Word Accessibility Video Training - Microsoft Support