Validating PDF Accessibility Compliance
Workflow
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro
- Tools pane > Accessibility > Full Check
- Make sure all options are checked.
- Click Start Checking to generate a report.
- View the report: Accessibility Checker pane
PAC2
PAC2 is an utility that checks accessibility against the PDF/UA standard, which is stricter than the standard used by the Adobe Acrobat XI accessibility checker.
It's not a normal Windows installer. Instead it unzips a folder containing an .exe and .dlls. The program can be run from that directory.
PAC2 errors and their fixes
Add errors with fixes here as they are encountered.
PDF/UA identifier missing
- Create a file containing the required metadata. (
\\diskstation\development\gsg\compliance\pdfuaid.xmpor [1]) - Append the metadata to the file with File > Properties > Description tab > Additional Metadata... > Advanced > Append
Font not embedded
Encountered this in a PDF document containing Chinese characters. Space characters seemed to cause this error.
Hard to track down because PAC2 only shows one instance of the missing font at a time, which requires editing & saving the PDF, re-running the check in PAC2 only to find the next instance of a space character.
Source: Please share your PDF/UA-compliance experience (Acrobat Standards & Accessibility Forum)
Resources
- Validating PDF/UA compliance (The PDF Association)
- PAC2 utility (Access For All Foundation)
- Please share your PDF/UA-compliance experiences (Adobe Acrobat Forum)