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
Form fields
tab order
Form field tab order must match the flow of the document: left to right, then top to bottom, with the exception of columns where it makes more sense to go from the top to the bottom of the leftmost column, then return to the top of the next column to the right.
- Tools pane > Forms > Edit > Fields tab
alternate text
Each form field must have alternate text that accurately describes the data to be collected by the field.
- Tools pane > Forms > Edit
- Form fields can be selected either in the document content area, or under the Fields tab.
- With a field selected: right click > Properties (Ctrl+i)
- Name is the label of the field. If a tooltip value is provided, this can be a code containing abbreviations, underscores and/or numbers that wouldn't necessarily make sense if it were read out loud. The Name field can contain spaces and special characters.
- Tooltip, if provided, is the text that is read out loud for the form field. As such the tooltip value should be easily understood. If a tooltip value is not provided, a screen reader would typically fall back on the Name value.
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.
Fixes for PAC2 reported errors
TODO: fill this out.
Resources
- Validating PDF/UA compliance (The PDF Association)
- PAC2 utility (Access For All Foundation)
- Please share your PDF/UA-compliance experiences (Adobe Acrobat Forum)