PDF accessibility guidelines
PDF Accessibility
Can you make PDFs accessible online?
It is incredibly difficult and time consuming to create a truly accessible PDF that would pass all of the necessary WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) checks.
We would recommend that you consider one of these other options;
- First of all does the information need to be hosted online at all? If it is for a select audience such as enrolled students or business partners you could justify sending a PDF as an email attachment for only these select people. Of course you would still need to consider that your audience may have needs or preferences that make this just as inaccessible.
- The most accessible and therefore preferable option is to create a webpage that displays the information that would otherwise be in the downloadable PDF.
- However there are also some exceptions and ways to meet the majority of users needs if a PDF download is really your only option.
Create a webpage
PDFs present as a flattened image rather than a text document, making the text inaccessible to users who rely on screen readers. Sometimes a screen reader can detect the words but they often end up in the wrong order or with bits missing.
Displaying the content as a webpage not only helps meet our accessibility obligations but is better for users on different devices too. Have you ever tried to open a PDF on your phone? Different screen sizes and levels of magnification often mean horizontal scrolling is required in order to see all the content, this goes against accessibility best practice.
Using web pages instead of PDFs will also:
- Make it easy to replicate design elements from your document using components editor
- Allow you to add images and interactive elements including videos to enhance the experience beyond what a PDF can offer
- Make your text easier for search engines to read, if you are concerned about reaching users through organic search using PDFs will be damaging your reach
- Simplify the update process when information changes for example in a student handbook
There are of course still accessibility requirements to be considered but they are much simpler to implement and SiteBuilder will even prompt you to do some of them via it's built in accessibility checker.
How to make a webpage
IDG have written some guidance on how to create new webpages in components editor.
If you would like our help designing and building these pages you can submit a project request via our webform.
Exceptions
While the optimal way to ensure your content is usable by the majority of people is to not use a PDF document there are some exceptions which the legislation allows
Documents for print use only
If your document is intended to be printed out for example a PDF download of a department course brochure then it is not required to be digitally accessible.
In an ideal world the content would be available elsewhere in a digital and accessible way, eg the course or department web pages.
Documents in an intranet
As documents that live within an intranet are not publicly accessible they are technically exempt from the legislation.
If however they are intended for use by a large and diverse group such as students it would be worth ensuring the information is available in an accessible format to ensure equality of access.
Historic or archived documents
If a document forms part of an archive or historic collection is does not need to be made accessible.
This rule also exempts any PDFs created before the legislation was updated ion the 23rd September 2018. However, if documents are this old and do not have special historic significance, it may be worth asking if you need them at all?
Don't meet the exceptions but still need a PDF?
Make it fully accessible
Ideally any PDF that does not meet any of the above exemptions would need to be made fully accessible. Unfortunately this is not something we have the capacity to help with and you will need to work through them yourself.
It is worth noting that mathematical / scientific notations such as 蟺 cannot currently be made accessible within a PDF.
You will need to check and correct:
- Colour contrast
- Metadata
- Language settings
- Tag order
- Reflow order
- Headings (order and tagging)
- Alternative text for images
- Other tagging (container elements, lists, links, tables, footnotes)
- Acronyms and abbreviations
- Headers and footers
The University software centre includes Kofax PDF which can assist you in making these necessary changes. You can also use PAC2026 to check some of the elements of PDF accessibility which can be automated, you will still need to check other elements manually. However this is not free.
Meet minimal accessibility
The University has many tens of thousands of PDFs and each one would take hours if not days of skilled work to make fully accessible. We can therefore claim this is in unreasonable burden and instead look to ensure that at least a basic standard has been met including:
- Text must be formatted as text and in an accessible font
- Headings should be tagged correctly and the document should include a contents page
- Text should follow a logical reading order and not switch and jump around between columns etc
- Alternative text for non-text elements like images and symbols
- Meaningful link text like the buttons on this page any hyperlinks in your PDF must clearly explain where they lead and what action you can expect to happen. eg are you filling out a form, viewing a webpage or downloading another document.
- Minimal use of tables and correct formatting where they are absolutely required
The easiest way to get a reasonably accessible PDF if you are creating the document yourself is to start with an accessible Word document and save it as a PDF.
Detailed video instructions
The video below was created as part of accessibility training provided by the University in 2021. It is hosted by Kerry Pinny Senior Academic Technologist at Learning Design Consultancy Limited.
The video is 57 minutes and 51 seconds long and covers both a description of what the requirements are and an in depth demonstration of how to use Kofax to create accessible PDFs both from an existing PDF and a scanned document.