Creating Accessible Documents

Owned by Rachel Klingler
Last updated: Jan 10, 2020
2 min read

Create an Accessible PDF from a Word Document

These directions are for Word 2010 or 2013 on Windows. For other platforms, see Creating Accessible PDFs from Microsoft Word.

  1. To create an accessible PDF, your Word Document must have accessibility features including using headings and adding alt text to images. See Creating Accessible Documents in Microsoft Word.
  2. You need to add a title to your document. On the File tab, on the right hand side under Properties, type a human-readable Title in the title section.
  3. Once you have completed your document using accessible features, go to File > “Save As…” and select PDF from the choices provided. By default this produces a PDF that preserves the document’s accessibility features. Do not use the "Print as PDF option."
  4. When saving, select Options and be sure that “Document structure tags for accessibility” is checked. This is checked by default, but could become unchecked under certain circumstances.
  5. If you select “Minimize Size” to reduce the size of your PDF, be sure to repeat the preceding step, as this option might uncheck the “Document structure tags for accessibility” checkbox.

Create an Accessible PDF from a Powerpoint Document

Like Word, if your original PowerPoint document is accessible, and you select the above options when creating the PDF from the PowerPoint, your PDF will be accessible. See PowerPoint Accessibility for more information on creating an accessible PowerPoint document.

Updating an existing PDF with Accessibility Features

The easiest way to make PDFs accessible is to start with the original document and use the steps above. If you have PDFs without originals, you can use Adobe Acrobat Pro to clean up the document. Please see Fixing Inaccessible PDFs Using Adobe Acrobat Pro.

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