1. Consider accessibility before you convert a document to PDF.

2. Add fillable form fields and descriptions, and set the tab order.

3. Tag the PDF.

4. Add other accessibility features to the PDF.

5. Evaluate the PDF and repair tagging problems.

Though these stages are presented in an order that suits most needs, you may perform tasks in these stages in a different order or iterate between some of the stages. In all cases, you should first examine the document, determine its intended purpose, and use that analysis to determine the workflow that you apply.

6. Consider accessibility before you convert a document to PDF.

Whenever possible, think about accessibility when you create the source files in an authoring application, such as a word-processing or page-layout application.

Typical tasks to do in the authoring application include adding alternate text to graphics, optimizing tables, and applying paragraph styles or other document-structure features that can be converted to tags. For more information, see Creating a tagged PDF from an authoring application.

7. Add fillable form fields and descriptions, and set the tab order.

If your document includes form fields, you must make form fields interactive (fillable) and include descriptions for the form fields. Use Forms > Run Form Fields Recognition to automatically detect form fields and make them fillable. For more information on detecting form fields and making them fillable, see Creating new forms.

Acrobat Professional and Acrobat 3D have a Forms toolbar that provides numerous tools for creating fillable form fields, such as buttons, check boxes, list boxes, and text boxes. When you create a field, you can type a description for it in the Tooltip box in the General tab of the field’s Properties dialog box. Screen readers will read this text aloud to the user. You can also use the TouchUp Reading Order tool to add descriptions to form fields.

For information on setting the tab order to use document structure, see Set form-field tabbing order in Acrobat.

8. Tag the PDF.

Improve the accessibility of PDFs by adding tags in Acrobat. If a PDF doesn’t contain tags, Acrobat may attempt to tag it automatically when users read or reflow it, and the results may be disappointing. If you provide users with a tagged PDF, the logical structure tree sends the contents to a screen reader or other assistive software or hardware in an appropriate order.

For best results, tag a document when converting it to PDF from an authoring application. Alternatively, you can tag a PDF any time in Acrobat.

Tagging during conversion to PDF requires an authoring application that supports tagging in PDF. Tagging during conversion enables the authoring application to draw from the source document’s paragraph styles or other structural information to produce a logical structure tree that reflects an accurate reading order and appropriate levels of tags. This tagging can more readily interpret the structure of complex layouts, such as embedded sidebars, closely spaced columns, irregular text alignment, and tables. Tagging during conversion can also properly tag the links, cross-references, bookmarks, and alternate text (when available) that are in the file.

To tag a PDF in Acrobat, use the Add Tags To Document command. This command works on any untagged PDF, such as one created with Adobe PDF Printer. Acrobat analyzes the content of the PDF to interpret the individual page elements, their hierarchical structure, and the intended reading order of each page, and then builds a tag tree that reflects that information. It also creates tags for any links, cross-references, and bookmarks that you added to the document in Acrobat.

Though the Add Tags To Document command adequately tags most standard layouts, it cannot always correctly interpret the structure and reading order of complex page elements, such as closely spaced columns, irregular text alignment, nonfillable form fields, and tables that don’t have borders. Tagging these pages by using the Add Tags To Document command can result in improperly combined elements or out-of-sequence tags that cause reading order problems in the PDF.

For more information, see Add tags to an existing PDF.

9. Add other accessibility features to the PDF.

This stage includes setting the document language, making sure that security settings don’t interfere with screen readers, creating accessible links, and adding bookmarks. For more information, see Set the document language, Prevent security settings from interfering with screen readers, Add accessible links, and About bookmarks.

10. Evaluate the PDF and repair tagging problems.

Once you have a tagged PDF, you must evaluate the document for reading order problems, tagging errors, and accessibility errors, and then repair them as needed.

No matter which method you use to tag the PDF, you’ll probably need to use Acrobat to touch up the tagging and reading order for complex page layouts or unusual page elements. For example, the Add Tags To Document command can’t always distinguish between instructive figures and decorative page elements such as borders, lines, or background elements. It may incorrectly tag all of these as figures. Similarly, the Add Tags To Document command may erroneously tag graphical characters within text—such as drop caps—as figures instead of including them in the tag that represents the rest of the text block. Such errors can clutter the tag tree and complicate the reading order that assistive technology relies on.

If you tag a document from within Acrobat, the application generates an error report after it completes the tagging process. You can use this report to guide you as you repair tagging problems. You can identify other tagging, reading order, and accessibility problems for any PDF in Acrobat by using the Full Check tool or the TouchUp Reading Order tool. For more information, see Check accessibility with Full Check and Check and correct reading order.