Content Comparison

You can work with PDF documents or convert documents to and from PDFs in many ways. Adobe Acrobat is available for download for all Swarthmore community members, as well as installed on all of the computers in our public computing labs.

...

...

...

Creating accessible PDFs doesn’t have to be difficult. We cover how to create accessible PDFs for everyday content in this section. However, if you are doing something more involved, we strongly recommend the LinkedIn Learning course titled Creating Accessible PDFs by Chad Chelius. LinkedIn Learning is a free learning resource available to everyone at Swarthmore.

...

Important Note: Avoid creating forms in using the tools noted below. Creating accessible PDF forms are very very difficult to make accessiblecan be extremely challenging. If you need to create an accessible form, please contact ITS Support for help.

There are several elements in PDFs that are required to make PDFs accessible. These include:

• Preparing the original document, regardless of the tool you use (e.g. Word, Sheets, scanned document) for optimal accessibility.

• Ensuring text is text and not a picture of text. To test this, copy a few sections of what should be text and paste it into a simple text editor such as Notepad. See: Quickly Check a Scan Using Copy/Paste.

• Providing tags or structure.

• Providing meaningful alternative text for all images that are not marked as decorative.

• Testing reading order.

• Providing a title in the metadata. See: Changing the title of an Adobe PDF in ITS’ Solutions.

• Identifying the global language of the material in the metadata. See: Changing the global language of an Adobe PDF in ITS’ Solutions.

You can check each of these individually, or you can use one of Acrobat’s built-in tools to help. The tool we have found to be most helpful is the Make Accessible tool. For whatever reason, it is a little hard to find right out of the box, but you can easily find it using the following steps:

...

You may wish to scan material for a course or other purpose. Follow the steps on the University of Washington’s Creating High Quality Scans to prepare the material. There is a direct correlation between the quality of the document to be scanned and the accuracy of the conversion to text.

...

1. choose 2-3 different pages or areas of the PDF, 

2. copy each page or area,

3. and paste that content into a text editor like Notepad or Word.  

4. Evaluate: How accurate is the paste? If there is fewer than one error per paragraph, you have a good scan.

Making PDFs Accessible Accessible

Add additional attributes to the PDF

The next step is to add additional attributes to the PDF to help increase the level of accessibility. UTo do this use Use Adobe Acrobat’s Make Accessible, which is found under Guided Actions.:

•  You can find Use guided actions  Use Guided Actions under All tools. 

• If you do not see Use guided actions Guided Actions under All toolsit theretools, use the search tool to find Manage Actions then choose Make Accessible.

...

1. Use the 'Action Wizard' toand to select 'Make Accessible' to automate many of the tagging processes. 

2. For scanned PDFs, use 'Scan & OCR' to convert the document into a text-based PDF.

3. Use the 'Accessibility Check' tool to identify and fix any remaining issues. For scanned PDFs, use 'Scan & OCR' to convert the document into a text-based PDF.

4. Adding Tags and Alternative Text: Use 'Tags ' to create an accessible reading order. 

5. Add alternative text for images by right-clicking the image and selecting 'Edit Alt Text'.

6. Check and fix Reading Order. Reading order is particularly important and seems to often be illogical in our experience. For example, you might think that the first paragraph you see is what is read first, but this is not always the case. The only way to determine if the reading order is correct is to check it.

SensusAccess for Document Conversion

Converting to Accessible Formats: Use SensusAccess to convert documents to accessible formats like tagged PDFs, audio, Braille, or e-text. This service is useful when dealing with non-text-based PDFs.

...

• Prepare source content: Prepare the original document, regardless of the tool you use (e.g. Word, Sheets, scanned document), for optimal accessibility.

• Avoid PDF Forms: Creating accessible PDF forms can be extremely challenging. Consider web forms or seek assistance from your IT support team to discuss accessible optionsIf you need to create an accessible form, please contact ITS Support for help.

• Use HTML for Web Content: HTML is inherently more accessible than PDFs. If possible, provide content in an HTML format or offer a web version of your document.

• Principles of Accessible Design: Follow best practices for web accessibility to ensure all users can interact with your content.

• Webpage Creation: Ensure that your web content adheres to accessibility standards. For additional information on web pages see: 

• Best Practices: Webpage Creation

Guidance for creating content on Swarthmore’s main websites

Signing PDFs

You can easily add your signature to a PDF document or form. To view directions that include downloadable practice files, please visit Adobe's official documentation on how to fill and sign PDF forms. The directions for adding a signature are the same, even if the document you are signing is not a fillable form.

...