The Moodle Filescan tool checks the accessibility of PDF files in a Moodle class and provides a report on the accessibility of each file. The status is either pass, fail, or check. A PDF file fails if it does not contain any text. A file is marked as "Check" if the file has text but does not have other accessibility elements. A PDF passes if it meets all the accessibility checks.
Check with the Library
Before fixing documents check with the library and see if they might have the document in an accessible electronic format. This can save a lot of time.
Has Text
If a PDF file does not "Have Text" it means the file has been scanned as an image. This means screen readers and other assertive devices will not be able to any text. To fix this problem, use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to extract the text from the image of the document. All department Cannon printers have been set to automatically scan documents using OCR.
To check that your scan was OCR'd, try copying a part of the document and pasting it. If you can successfully paste the same text you copied your document has been OCR'd. If this is not the case, it is most likely that the setting on the printer has been changed and you should open a ticket with the help desk explaining that the Cannon copier is not OCRing documents.
More information: https://www.swarthmore.edu/academic-advising-support/accessible-course-materials.
Title, Language and Outline
The following items can sometimes be fixed by using Acrobat DC's "Action Wizard"
which can be found in the right sidebar, or by going to Tools > Customize > Action Wizard
Once you find the Action Wizard one of the first options on the "Actions Lis"t is to "Make Accessible". All you need to do is follow the steps. This will work for about 70% of documents
Important Caveat: Not all documents can successfully be made accessible. A great deal depends on the quality of the original document. Even if Acrobat successfully translates an image of text to text it is very important to review the document. Original documents of poor quality, documents which have a lot of notes or underlines, and documents with blurred text may result in inaccurate translations and gibberish. If you find this to be the case, please reach out to accessibility@swarthmore.edu
Has Title
A PDF file stores metadata about the document, including the title of the document, which is different than the filename. If the title is missing from the metadata fields, the PDF will fail this test. Use Adobe Acrobat to set the Title of the document: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/pdf-properties-metadata.html.
Has Language
A PDF file stores information about the language of the document which is used by screen readers and other assistive devices to ensure proper pronunciation. Using the Action Wizard Adobe Acrobat to set the Language of the document: https://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/acrobat/pdf-repair-set-document-language.html
Has Outline
The outline of a PDF file allows screen readers to easily navigate a document. For instance, if every section of a chapter is tagged, a user can quickly jump from one section to the next. Microsoft Word documents created using the built-in heading styles (e.g. Heading 1, Heading 2) can be used to create tagged PDFs than contain an outline. PDF created from a scanned document usually do not have outlines because the scanner cannot distinguish between chapters or sections with a document. It can be complex to tag PDF files. Please contact accessibility@swarthmore.edu to learn more about the outlining process.