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This next section assumes you're using Adobe Acrobat Professional 6 and that you're testing a tagged Adobe PDF file created using the steps listed in Part 1 of this series. (Sorry, but PDF forms are beyond the scope of this newsletter). If you're trying to test a standard PDF file, the Tags palette (View > Navigation Tabs > Tags) will indicate the file has no tags. If this is the case, your first step is to recreate the document using an accessible authoring tool such as Microsoft Word XP or 2003 or InDesign 2 (using the steps listed in Part 1 of this series). Or if that is impossible, use Acrobat Pro's Advanced > Accessibility > Add Tags to Document feature (or hold down the Alt key and type the letter A 3 times).Here are some of the major things you should be testing your PDF documents for:
Here are some of the tests you should be performing to help you discover problems with your PDF documents and validate them for accessibility.
Our next step after creating a tagged document, is to run Acrobat Pro's Accessibility Checker (forget about Quick Check—it's useless for our purposes).
You will then get a pop-up window explaining that there were no problems found, or, if there were, what they are. For example:The checker found problems which may prevent the document from being fully accessible.
+ All of the text in this document lacks a language specification.
3 Figure structure element(s) with no alternate text.These 2 errors indicate that you will need to define the document language and label the <Figure> tags with equivalent alternate text. Once you've fixed all the errors noted by the Accessibility Checker, run the the Full Check again. Address any new errors found and run the Full Check again. Continue this iterative process until you've eleminated all errors.Note that the Accessibility Checker might report problems with elements that are things you can safely ignore. For example, it might report that there are images in the file that do not have alternate text. However, if these images are just the decorative and contain no information, they would be unnecessary for someone using a screen reader, and would not require alternate text. Similarly, the Accessibility Checker might report that running headers or footers are not part of the structure tree. You could leave these as is (or mark them as page artifacts), since you don't need this information to be vocalized by a screen reader.
With Acrobat and Acrobat Reader, users can reflow the content of a tagged PDF document to fit into a different-sized display screen (such as on a PDA) without forcing the user to scroll horizontally. Reflowing your tagged PDF is a great way to find reading order problems, figures that should really be tagged as artifacts, and other problems. A properly tagged document should reflow (although tables don't always reflow, no matter what you do).
To return to edit mode, deselect Reflow by repeating the steps above (or by using the shortcut Ctrl+4).Fix all the issues you discovered during reflow. Reflow again. Continue this iterative process until you've eleminated all reflow problems.
At the bare minimum, your document should be readable by Acrobat's Read Out Loud feature. This is a built-in tool that will show you how the information is actually presented to a user using a screen reader. It will also allow you to check read order, alternate text, navigational elements, and tables rendered as speech. You'll need a sound card and speakers/headset to use this feature.
Note any problems you discover as you listen and go back and fix them. Continue this iterative process until you've eleminated all problems encountered by this screen reader.
It is strongly recommended that you also test your document against the 2 most popular screen readers on the market: GW Micro's Window-Eyes and Freedom Scientific's JAWS for Windows. For more information on either screen reader, please see the documentation that comes with it. Note any problems you discover as you listen and go back and fix them. Continue this iterative process until you've eleminated all problems encountered by each screen reader.
The information provided in this issue of Criterion 508 Notes! is a first step towards creating PDF accessibility. However, the entire process is very complex and time consuming. If you would like further assistance with your PDF accessibility issues, please contact Criterion!