Content Comparison

Summary

This page summarizes WCAG 2.1 AA standards for creating accessible PDFs. If any conflict exists, follow the WCAG documentation.

Best Practices

1. Create your document in Microsoft Word, using built-in features for lists, headings, tables, etc, then export to PDF.

2. Simplify charts, tables and graphs to the best of your ability. Only use built-in features to create these items, and provide alternative methods of accessing the content where possible.

Details

All PDF Types

• Alternative text

  • Using a PDF editor, check that a text alternative is displayed for each image.

• Artifact images

  • For an image that is purely decorative, make sure the decorative image is marked as an artifact.

• Bookmarks

  • Check that the Bookmarks panel displays bookmarks.

  • Check that the bookmarks link to the correct sections in the document.

• Tabs and Reading Order

  • Verify that the content is in the correct reading order

• Table markup

  • For each table, confirm that the appropriate TR, TH, and TD tags are in the proper reading order and hierarchy in the table tree.

• OCR/Actual Text

  • For each page converted to text using OCR, ensure that the resulting PDF has been converted correctly, via manual review in ABBYY Finereader.

• Abbreviations and acronyms

  • Verify that the first occurrence of abbreviations that require expansion text have /E entries on an enclosing tag by one of the following and that both the abbreviation and the expansion text are provided:

    1. In Windows, use Microsoft's Inspect.exe tool, or some other tool that allows inspection of the MSAA interface, to locate the text of the abbreviation in the document tree and ensure that the value of the abbreviation is in the expansion text.

    2. In a PDF editor, locate the tag for the text that is the abbreviation, and check that an expansion or definition is provided for each abbreviation in the Expansion Text field in the corresponding tag's properties.

• Headings

  • For all PDF content that is divided into separate sections, use a PDF editor to make sure the headings are tagged correctly.

• Links

  • For each hyperlink, verify that the link is correctly tagged and the link text is properly exposed.

• Replacement text

  • For the hyperlink, verify that the alternate link text is properly coded.

• Running headers and footers

  • Check that running headers and/or footers are provided and contain information to help users locate themselves within the document (such as page numbers or chapter numbers).

    1. If section headers are used in the running header or footer, check that the section header and the running header or footer are consistent.

• Default Language

  • Verify that the default language for the document is correctly specified.

• Multi-language documents

  • Verify that the language of a passage, phrase, or word that differs from the language of the surrounding text is correctly specified by a /Lang entry on an enclosing tag or container.

• Page numbering

  • For every section in the document that uses a different pagination format, check that the page navigation feature uses the same format used on the document pages.

• Document title

  • Verify that the title for the document is correctly specified and displayed in the title bar.

• Editing tables

  • For a table that has been repaired with the Table Editor, confirm one of the following:

    1. Using a PDF editor, verify that the appropriate TR, TH, and TD tags are in the proper reading order and hierarchy in the table tree.

• Lists

  • Inspect the tag tree to verify that the list is structured correctly.

PDF Forms

Forms require additional attention to accessibility measures. Incorporate all of the above content, plus the following.

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