Fixing Inaccessible PDFs - An Intro

This page will provide instructions on the most basic and first steps for remediating an inaccessible PDF. 

You have a choice as to how to engage with the material in this lesson. Remember, the key concepts are always addressed in the text. If you need more info or learn by watching, the videos and resources are great supplements.

• Read About It
• Watch a Demo / Video
• Explore Resources on the Web

Action Wizard: Make Accessible 

If you have a document that is scanned or does not contain any tags, then you can use the Action Wizard to try and make the PDF accessible. This tool is not the most reliable, but some users find it easier to correct document components rather than to add them in from scratch. This wizard will run optical character recognition (OCR) to convert images of text to readable text. Additionally, it will prompt you to add in metadata. Metadata is used to help users find the document in searches or browser tabs and set the language, which ensures text to speech software will pronounce the text accurately. Lastly, it will call out images without alt-text and guide you to enter alt-text or mark the image as decorative.

The following lessons will cover how to fix inaccuracies in the formatting, but to run the wizard, follow the steps below. 

1. Go to and select Tools from the document menu.
2. Open the Action Wizard - the pane will appear on the right side of the screen. 
3. Select Make Accessible from the list of actions. 
4. Follow the prompts to add metadata and help Adobe Acrobat to identify different features in your document. 
5. Once the wizard has stopped, run the accessibility check to see if any additional issues still remain. 
6. Use the order and tag navigation panes (discussed in the previous lesson) to check the document read order and tags in order to manually check for common errors. See next section for more info. 
   
   

Read Order

Once you are working with a text document, you'll want to work in the Order navigation pane to ensure the elements of your document are being read in the correct order. The Order pane will allow you to reorder items that are not in a logical order. More importantly, if the document is not tagged, the Touch Up Reading Order window will allow you to select text and document elements and easily tag them as headings, tables, figures, or standard paragraph text. This tool can help you address read order and tags at the same time. 

1. Open the Order pane from the Navigation menu.
2. Review the read order of the document elements (the sections should be numbered, if the tag structure shows instead, go to Show Reading Order from the Options menu and make sure "page content order" is selected).
3. To reorder items, select the item from the Order panel and drag and drop it to the appropriate spot. 

Tag Structure

Tagging a PDF gives the document structure in the same way that adding headings to a Word document does. If you've created your document in Word with headings, those headings should come over when you save the document as a PDF. If the document is scanned, the Action Wizard will try to add tags, but be prepared to go in and correct them. To evaluate and modify tags, follow the steps below. 

1. Open the Tag pane. 
2. Expand the items until you can see the list of tags in the document. 
3. Click through to see the text/objects associated with each tag in order to check accuracy. (If the associated text is not identified as you click through, go to options, then select Highlight Content.)
4. To change a tag, right click, select Properties, select the tag type from the drop-down menu. Or, you can double click on the tag and type in the correct tag.

Note: If the document is not tagged, you can use the Action Wizard to add tags or you can tag content manually using the Touch Up Read Order pane (from the Order panel). 

Alt Text for Images

To check and fix the alt text in a PDF, open the Accessibility tool and select "Set Alternate Text". This will identify images in your document and allow you to review and edit the alt text. You can also mark an image as decorative if needed. (The following page will discuss what to do if an image is not identified or if one is but shouldn't be tagged as an image.)

Adobe's Action Wizard  (6:33)

A demo of Acrobat's Action Wizard "Make Accessible" process.

Fixing a Scanned Document (11:31)

A demo of fixing a scanned document with the Adobe Action Wizard. Addresses read order, artifacting background/irrelevant graphics, and fixing document tags.

PDF Tags (4 mins)

How to review and change tags in a PDF using Acrobat Pro DC.

• Create and verify PDF accessibility Links to an external site.
• Touch Up Reading Order tool overview Links to an external site.
• Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels  Links to an external site.