If you’ve been struggling with PDF accessibility, you can stop searching and briefly thank the AI and Google search gods. You found the best PDF accessibility guide for exactly how to create accessible PDFs!
This PDF accessibility guide is broken down into 3 manageable phases. From government agencies starting your accessibility journey to passionate accessibility teams of 1, we’ve made each phase of this accessibility PDF guide manageable and actionable.
Table of Contents
Who Is the PDF Accessibility Simplified Guide For?
This PDF accessibility guide is designed for all resources in roles responsible for creating or publishing accessible PDFs. This PDF accessibility guide will be especially helpful for agencies, municipalities, and educational institutions wanting to:
- Reduce the costs and level of effort for PDF accessibility compliance.
- Know they are correctly using accessibility best-practices for PDFs.
- Ensure complex PDFs like forms and applications are ADA compliant .
- Prevent PDF accessibility barriers and ADA violations caused by third party vendors.
What Are The 3 Phases of PDF Accessibility Simplified?
Phase 1: The Essential Best-Practices
Phase 1 is all about mastering the basics. The fundamentals. The essentials of accessibility. These accessibility PDF best-practices must be a part of your standardized workflows, cheat sheets, as well as incorporated into organizational onboarding and annual trainings.
Accessibility is about what you do and how you do it. Phase 1 starts with these accessibility PDF essentials as they are the must-have practices needed to comply with WCAG requirements, while improving usability for screen readers and assistive technology users in the process. Every PDF your team publishes to your website should meet these minimum accessibility standards.
Phase 2: More Advanced PDF Accessibility Components.
In Phase 2, we’re going to roll up our sleeves and tackle more difficult components like tables, forms, and interactive elements!
Whether you’re managing a complex application, form, or internal document, Phase 2 will guide you step by step in overcoming the more difficult and common accessibility PDF components. It might look great, but Phase II will make sure it’s pretty and usable to everyone.
Phase 3: Business Operations and Software Platform Analysis.
What happens when accessibility violations aren’t created by your team, but the software, applications, and technology stack your organization is using?
Third party tools, vendors, applications, and software are the biggest risks for ADA compliance violations. Phase 3 walks you through the testing process for your technology stack to provide you direct knowledge and insight on the source of ADA compliance violations for PDFs. Many times, departments are producing PDFs with accessibility best-practices, but their third party vendor software is unknowingly introducing ADA compliance violations!
PDF Accessibility Simplified Phase 1: The Essential Best-Practices
For PDF accessibility, all of the best-practices below need to be incorporated into your workflow going forward to be compliant with the new ADA rules effective April 24, 2026.
Use Phase 1 as your checklist for creating accessible PDFs. You can also modify this list to check for accessibility compliance prior to publishing.
Remember, while accessibility automation does not catch all accessibility issues we teach you about here in Phase 1, never, ever publish a PDF to your website without running an automated accessibility check first.
How to Add a Document Title
1. Open Adobe Acrobat Pro and open the PDF file you want to edit.
2. Click on the File "Menu" located in the top-left corner of the window.
3. From the dropdown, select "Document properties".
4. In the Document Properties dialog box, click the Description tab.
5. From the "Description" tab, locate the Title field. Enter your desired document title in the field.
6. Click OK to save the changes.
7. Now, you will see the document title displayed in the title bar of the PDF window.
Note: If the title does not appear, ensure that "Show Title" is selected under the Initial View tab in Document Properties.
How to Change Language Settings
1. Open Adobe Acrobat Pro and open the PDF file you want to edit.
2. Click on the File " Menu " located in the top-left corner of the window.
3. From the dropdown, select " Preferences ".
4. In the Preferences window, select Language from the left-hand panel.
5. Under Application Language , choose one of the following
Choose at application startup – lets you pick a language each time you open Acrobat.
Match OS – automatically uses the same language as your operating system.
Select a language – pick your preferred language from the dropdown list.
6. Click OK to save your changes.
Restart Acrobat for the new language settings to take effect.
How to Create and Organize Headings in a Logical Order
1. Open your PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro and click the Tags panel on the left.
2. In the Tags panel, expand the tag tree by clicking the arrow.
Look for heading tags, which appear as
<H1>; for Heading 1
<H2>; for Heading 2
<H3>; etc., for lower-level headings
Ensure that the headings follow a logical nesting order:
<H1>; (main sections)
<H2>; (subsections of H1)
<H3>; (subsections of H2)
3. To change a tag , right-click an existing tag (e.g., <P> for paragraph).
Choose Properties.
4. Then change the Type to the correct heading level (e.g., H1, H2).
5. Alternatively, double-click the tag (e.g., <P>) to make it editable. Replace it with the appropriate heading type (e.g., H1, H2) and press Enter.
6. To create a new heading tag:
In the Tags panel , click the three dots (more options icon). Select Find.
7. In the Find Element dialog, choose Unmarked Content or search for specific tag types.
8. Once the element is found and highlighted: Choose the appropriate tag type (e.g., H1 for Heading 1, H2 for Heading 2).
The newly created heading tag will appear in the Tags panel, and you can drag it into the correct position if needed.
9. To verify the Reading Order
Go to Accessibility > Reading Order.
Use the tool to ensure your headings are in the correct logical sequence for screen readers.
How to Write Effective ALT text for images
1. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC . In the left-hand pane or top menu, click on " All Tools" .
2. Scroll through the list or use the search bar to find “ Prepare for Accessibility. ”
3. After selecting " Prepare for Accessibility ", click “ Add Alternate Text. ”
4. A pop-up modal will appear, automatically detecting all figures in the document. Click "OK" to proceed.
5. For each image, enter a meaningful description in the provided field or mark it as decorative if it doesn’t convey important information.
6. Click “ Save & Close ” once all alt text has been reviewed or added.
7. Click "Add, delete, or edit accessibility tags. "
You may also Add an Alt Text using the Tags panel.
8. In the Tags panel , locate the image tag:
Look for tags labeled <Figure>.
Expand sections by clicking the arrows if needed.
9. Right-click on the <Figure> tag and select “Properties.”
10. In the Object Properties dialog box
Go to the “ Tag ” tab.
In the Alternate Text field, enter a brief, meaningful description of the image.
Example: "Map of the United States showing population density by state."
11. Click Close to save the alt text.
How to Ensure Color Contrast Meets Readability Standards
1. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC . In the left-hand pane or top menu, click on “All Tools."
2. Scroll through the list or use the search bar to find “Prepare for Accessibility.”
3. After selecting "Prepare for Accessibility" , click “Check for accessibility.”
4. Click “Start Checking” in the Accessibility Checker Options pop-up modal.
5. In the Accessibility Checker panel:
Under Document, look for " Contrast (Minimum)” .
If issues are found, Acrobat will list them in the report. Review flagged elements and adjust colors in the source file if necessary.
Note: Adobe’s checker may not catch all contrast issues, especially those within images. Manual verification is recommended.
6. Open the Color Contrast Analyzer tool (Windows or Mac).
To select:
The foreground (text) color.
The background color
The tool will automatically tell you whether the contrast ratio passes
WCAG AA (minimum)
WCAG AAA (enhanced)
Standards:
4.5:1 for normal text
3:1 for large text (18pt+ or bold 14pt+)
How to Create Accessible Hyperlinks in a PDF (Descriptive Link Text)
1. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC . In the left-hand pane or top menu, click on “Edit."
2. Select Link > Add or Edit a Link.
3. Highlight the text you want to turn into a link
(e.g., “Visit AccessAbility Officer website”).
4. In the Create Link dialog
Choose the Link Appearance
(“Invisible Rectangle” is preferred for accessibility).
Set the Action to Open a web page.
Click Next , then paste the URL of the destination.
5. Paste the URL of the destination and click OK.
6. Open the Tags panel and locate the section where the link appears. Confirm the link is inside <Link> tag. If it's not:
Right-click the text in the Content panel.
Choose Create Tag from Selection.
7. In the New Tag dialog box, choose Link from the dropdown and click OK.
8. Go back to the Tags panel — the new <Link> tag should now appear in the structure.
9. Right-click on the Tags root (or any tag) and select Find.
10. In the Find Element dialog:
From the dropdown, select Unmarked Links. Click Find.
11. If an unmarked link is found
The link will be highlighted in the document.
Click " Tag Element" in the pop-up dialog.
The link will now be tagged and appear as a <Link> tag in the Tags panel.
Phase 1 Conclusion: PDF Accessibility Simplified
Incorporating these essential accessibility best-practices to ensure your PDFs meet ADA compliance is essential for every resource in a role that is responsible for creating or publishing accessible PDFs. Especially for government agencies and municipalities wanting to reduce ADA compliance violations, you cannot afford to overlook these essential accessibility best-practices anymore.
Did you know Ability is our middle name?
AccessAbility Officer specializes in helping government agencies and municipalities minimize ADA compliance risks. We help with web and PDF accessibility, automated accessibility testing, and upskilling teams with functional, hands-on trainings.
Request an Accessibility Audit today. Digital Accessibility Audits
What’s in Phase 2 of PDF Accessibility Simplified?
In Phase 2, we dive into accessibility for complex PDFs like applications and forms. From permits to licenses, court documents to assistance programs, government agencies and municipalities use forms to interact with and serve their residents. In Phase 2 of PDF Accessibility Simplified, we walk you through step-by-step how to ensure ADA accessibility compliance for these complex PDFs and even show you how to manually test your PDFs for accessibility compliance!
Phase 2 will be released next week. Sign up for our free newsletter so you won’t miss it.