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PDF Accessibility Simplified: Phase 2 Complex Tables and Forms

September 5, 2025
Author: AccessAbility Officer

Government agencies and municipalities are overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of achieving ADA compliance for all of their websites, mobile apps, and PDFs. The upcoming April 2026 deadline for the new rules for ADA compliance don’t make it any easier. But you’re not alone.

In Phase 1 of PDF Accessibility Simplified (hyperlink to phase 1 article), we provided you step-by-step instructions for incorporating essential accessibility best-practices to be compliant with the new ADA compliance regulations effective April 24, 2026.

Here in Phase 2, we will be providing you step-by-step instructions for ensuring PDF accessibility and ADA compliance for more complex PDFs, like applications and forms. These applications and forms are critical for how government interacts, engages, and serves its residents. The problem with ADA compliance is that forms, interactive elements, and large data tables can create additional barriers for people with disabilities that often prevent individuals from accessing them with assistive technology like screen readers, speech navigation, and switch controls.

We understand how complex and confusing pdf accessibility can be. To make things easier, The PDF accessibility Simplified guide is broken down into 3 manageable phases.

Table of Contents

What Are The 3 Phases of PDF Accessibility Simplified?

Phase 1: The Essentials.

Phase 2: More Advanced PDF Accessibility Components.

Phase 3: Business Operations and Software Platform Analysis.

Phase 2: More Advanced PDF Accessibility Components.

How to Label Form Fields in PDFs Using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

How to Set Tab Order for Form Fields and Interactive Elements in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

How to Create Accessible Tables with TH and TD Tags

How to Tag Document Elements Correctly in Adobe Acrobat

How to Test PDFs with Screen Readers

Phase 2 Conclusion: Complex PDF Accessibility

What’s in Phase 3 of PDF Accessibility Simplified?

 

 

What Are The 3 Phases of PDF Accessibility Simplified?

Phase 1: The Essentials.

 

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.

 
If you missed Phase 1, you can read it here: Phase 1: Essential PDF Accessibility Best-Practices

 

Phase 2: More Advanced PDF Accessibility Components.

 

Now that we’re 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. In the final phase of PDF Accessibility Simplified, we will walk 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! You don’t want that, and neither do your residents.

Phase 2: More Advanced PDF Accessibility Components.

 


Ready to dive in? Let’s roll up our sleeves and get our PDF accessibility on!

 

How to Label Form Fields in PDFs Using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC


1. Open Adobe Acrobat Pro and open the PDF file you want to convert into a fillable form.               

Screenshot of a sample PDF form titled “Sample Form” with placeholder text for text field, checkboxes, and radio buttons.

2. Click "All tools" or "Edit" to access the "Prepare a form" tool.

PDF editor interface with the “All tools” option highlighted in the top left menu.

3. Click "Prepare a form" tool, which automatically detects form fields in the document.

PDF editor showing the “All tools” panel with the “Prepare a form” option highlighted.

4. Once you're in the Prepare a form view, select your preferred option for creating a form, then click "Create Form" to begin adding fields to the document.

“Choose an option to create a form” screen with the PDF file selected and the “Create form” button highlighted.

5. If no new form fields are detected, you can manually place text fields within each table cell by selecting the appropriate field type from the toolbar and positioning it in the desired location.

Adobe Acrobat pop-up message stating “No new form field annotations were detected,” with the “OK” button highlighted.

6. In the Add Form Components section, select Text Field if you want to insert a text input field into your document.

Form editing view with a text field being added next to the “Text field:” label.

7. Select Checkbox Field if you want to insert an option that users can check or uncheck, typically used for yes/no or multiple-choice selections—not for text input.

Checkbox being added next to the “Checkbox 1” label in the sample form.

8. Select Radio Button Field if you want to insert a set of options where the user can select only one choice from a group, commonly used for single-choice questions like Yes/No or Male/Female, not for text input.

Radio buttons being added next to “Radio Button 1” and “Radio Button 2” in the form.

9. Right-click the newly added form field and select "Properties" to customize its settings, such as name, tooltip, appearance, and behavior.

Right-click menu on the text field with the “Properties” option highlighted.

10. In the General tab

Name: This is the internal field name (not read by screen readers).
for screen reader users.
Enter a clear, concise description of the field's purpose.
Example: “First Name”, “Email Address”, “Accept Terms and Conditions”

Text Field Properties window open, showing fields for Name and Tooltip.

Tooltips are what screen readers will announce — not the field name or placeholder.

How to Set Tab Order for Form Fields and Interactive Elements in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

 
1. Open Adobe Acrobat Pro and open the PDF file you want to convert into a fillable form.

Screenshot of a sample PDF form titled “Sample Form” with placeholder text for text field, checkboxes, and radio buttons.

2. Click "All tools" or "Edit" to access the "Prepare a form" tool.

PDF editor screen showing the “All tools” option in the top menu, highlighted with an orange box and arrow.

3. Click "Prepare a form" tool, which automatically detects form fields in the document.

Tools menu open with the “Prepare a form” option highlighted in orange.

4. Once you're in the Prepare a form view, select your preferred option for creating a form, then click "Create Form" to begin adding fields to the document.

“Choose an option to create a form” screen with the selected PDF file displayed and the “Create form” button highlighted.

5. If no new form fields are detected, you can manually place text fields within each table cell by selecting the appropriate field type from the toolbar and positioning it in the desired location.

Adobe Acrobat pop-up message stating “No new form field annotations were detected,” with the “OK” button highlighted.

6. In the Prepare Form mode

Click the "More" dropdown (found in the right-hand toolbar).
Select “Set Tab Order.”

Sample form in editing view with added form fields (text box, checkboxes, and radio buttons) displayed. Tab order panel is open and highlighted on the right.

7. Choose one of the following

Order Tabs Unspecified – does not define any tab order, which means tabbing may follow the order in which the fields were added to the document.
Order Tabs by Structure – uses the document’s tag structure (from the Tags panel) to determine the tabbing sequence.
Order Tabs Manually – lets you drag and drop fields into your desired order.
Order Tabs by Row – tabbing moves left to right, top to bottom.
Order Tabs by Column – tabbing moves top to bottom, then left to right.

Tab order options menu open, showing choices such as “Order tabs by structure,” “Order tabs by row,” “Order tabs manually,” with “Order tabs unspecified” selected.

How to Create Accessible Tables with TH and TD Tags


1. Open Adobe Acrobat Pro and open the PDF file that contains or will contain the table.

PDF with a sample table showing names, contact numbers, and email addresses. Accessibility Tags panel on the right displays <Document>, <H1>, and <Table>.

2. When the Accessibility Tags pane is open, locate the <Table> tag. Click the small triangle (or arrow) next to <Table> to expand it. Then, click the arrow next to each <TR> tag to display its contents.

Accessibility Tags panel expanded to show the <Table> structure with multiple <TR> (table rows).

3. Review Tagging for Each Cell

Tag to ensure it is correctly applied

<TH>for header cells (column or row headers).
<TD>for data cells.

If a tag is incorrect

Option 1: Double-click the tag name in the Tags panel and change it to the correct tag type.
Option 2: Select the tag, right-click, and choose Properties to change its settings.

A single table cell (“Jane Doe”) is highlighted, and the <TD> tag is selected in the Accessibility Tags panel.

 

4. Go to the Order pane, click the three dots, and select “Show Reading Order” to visually check the reading sequence.

Table content tagged with numbers and arrows. The “Order” panel is open with “Show reading order panel” highlighted.

 

5. Once the Reading Order pop-up modal appears, click on the table, then select “Table Editor.”

Reading Order panel open, with “Table Editor” option highlighted. Table cells are outlined with red borders.

 

6. Click on a table cell, then right-click and select “Table Cell Properties.”

Context menu open inside the table showing “Table Cell Properties” highlighted.

 

7. When the Table Cell Properties pop-up modal is open, select the appropriate Type for your table cell (e.g., Header Cell or Data Cell).

Table Cell Properties dialog open, with “Header Cell” option highlighted.

 

8. If the cell is a Header Cell, select the correct Scope... Row, Column, or Both...  to accurately define which cell the header applies to.

Table Cell Properties dialog open with the “Scope” dropdown menu expanded, showing options: Row, Column, Both, None.

 

 

For merged headers, ensure ColSpan or RowSpan values match the table’s visual layout so assistive technologies read the correct header associations.

 

9. Once you have set up the properties, click “OK” to save and apply the changes.

Table Cell Properties dialog with “Header Cell” selected and Scope set to “Row.” The “OK” button is highlighted.

 

10. Once the changes are applied, the table cells will now display the correct tagging in the Tags panel.

Table with header cells highlighted in red. The “Name” and row headers are set as <TH> tags.

 

How to Tag Document Elements Correctly in Adobe Acrobat


1. To begin, open Adobe Acrobat Pro and launch the file you want to edit.

PDF demo file open with sections, list, image placeholder, and table. Accessibility tags panel shows “No Tags available.”

 

2. Next, go to the Tools pane, search for the Accessibility tool, and click to open it. Once the Accessibility pane is visible on the right side, click “Accessibility Check” and then “Start Checking” to run a scan of the document. Review the results to identify any issues such as missing tags or incorrect reading order.

Left panel “Prepare for accessibility” open with “Check for accessibility” highlighted. Accessibility Checker panel on right lists issues for document, content, tables, lists, and headings.

 

3. If the document has no tag structure, click “Autotag Document” from the Accessibility panel. Then, open the Tags panel by navigating to View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Tags, and verify that the tag tree includes basic elements such as headings, paragraphs, images, and tables.

Accessibility tags panel open with dropdown menu, “Autotag document” option highlighted.

 

4. To fix the reading order, click “Reading Order” under the Accessibility tools. Use this tool to select content blocks and assign the appropriate type (for example, “Heading 1,” “Text,” or “Figure”).

Reading Order panel open with content blocks outlined in gray. Table tagged with <TH> for headers and <P> for paragraphs.

 

5. For images, locate the <Figure> tag in the Tags panel, right-click, choose Properties, and enter a descriptive Alternate Text. If the image is decorative, mark it as an artifact using the Reading Order tool.

Object Properties window open for an image tag (<Figure>). Alternate Text field highlighted for adding description.

 

When tagging images in a PDF, ensure each image has a &lt;Figure&gt; tag with appropriate alternative text (alt text) that clearly describes the image's purpose; if the image is purely decorative, mark it as an artifact to prevent screen readers from announcing it.

 

6. Next, confirm that all headings follow a proper hierarchy by checking that each heading is tagged as <H1>, <H2>, and so on. Right-click any tag and update its type via Properties if needed.

Object Properties window open for heading. “Type: Heading Level 2” highlighted. Accessibility tags panel shows <H2> selected.

 

Aside from changing the heading level in the tag's properties, you can also double-click the heading tag to edit it directly or adjust the heading level using the "Reading Order" tool.

7. Review any lists in the document to ensure they are tagged properly using <L>, <LI>, <Lbl>, and <LBody>. If the tagging is incorrect, fix it by manually editing the tag tree.

PDF demo open. “Section 2: Features List” numbered list highlighted, with <L> list structure expanded in Accessibility tags panel.

 

When tagging lists in a PDF, ensure they follow the correct structure by using L for the list, LI for each list item, Lb for the bullet or number, and LBody for the item description, so that screen readers can interpret the content accurately. 

 

8. Check the table structure in the Tags panel and make sure it includes <Table>, <TR>, <TH>, and <TD> tags. If necessary, right-click the table and use Table Editor to define header cell scopes appropriately.

Table content highlighted. Accessibility tags panel expanded showing <Table>, <TR>, <TH>, and <TD> tags structured correctly.

 

When tagging tables in a PDF, ensure each table includes proper structure tags such as <Table> <TR> for table rows, <TH> for header cells, and <TD> for data cells; also set the correct scope (row or column) for header cells to help screen readers convey the relationships between headers and data accurately. 

 

9. Set the document properties by going to File > Document Properties > Description and entering a document title. Then, under the Initial View tab, select “Document Title” to display it in the title bar.

Document Properties window open under “Description.” The Title field “Sample Demo” highlighted.

 

10. In the Advanced tab, make sure the language is set (e.g., English).

Document Properties window open under “Advanced.” Language dropdown highlighted and set to English.

 

11. If the PDF has more than one page, ensure users can navigate the form logically by opening the Page Thumbnails panel, right-clicking each page, selecting Page Properties, and setting the Tab Order to "Use Document Structure."

PDF Demo open with Page navigation panel. A thumbnail of the single page is shown, and the “Page Properties” option is highlighted.

 

 

1. Open Adobe Acrobat Pro, then open the PDF file containing the table you want to test with a screen reader.

PDF with a sample table open. Pages panel on the right shows one page. The “Duplicate page” button is highlighted.

 

2. For the table, the first cells that will be read are the table headers. You can use the arrow keys to navigate.

PDF with sample table titled “Sample Table.” Table includes Name, Contact Number, and Email Address.

 

3. Next, the screen reader will read the second row, which is composed of the table header (row) and the table data cells, continuing until the entire table has been read.

Table header row highlighted. NVDA Speech Viewer shows: “Heading level 1 Sample Table. Table with 3 rows and 3 columns. Row 1 column 1 Name, column 2 Contact Number, column 3 Email Address.”

 

4. For example, if “Name” has a text field, the screen reader will read the text label “Name” followed by the form field, which is configured as “Input your name.” The screen reader will announce it as: “Name: Input your name, edit.”

Table row highlighted for “Jane Doe.” NVDA Speech Viewer reads: “Row 2, column 1 Jane Doe. Contact Number column 2 1234567891. Email Address column 3 janedoe@test.com .”

 

5. The next form contains radio buttons with the text label “Are you single?” and can be answered by selecting either “Yes” or “No.” The screen reader will announce the option as a radio button, indicating whether it is checked or not. For example: “Are you single? No, radio button, not checked,” and vice versa.

Sample form open. Text input field “Name” highlighted. NVDA Speech Viewer reads: “Heading level 1 Sample Form. Edit, type your name.”

 

6. Lastly, the form that contains checkboxes allows you to select multiple items. For example, in the question “Which of the following fruits do you like? (Select all that apply),” the options are

☐ Apple 

☐ Mango

☐ Banana

☐ Grapes

Screen reader output example

> "Which of the following fruits do you like? Checkbox, Apple, not checked."

> "Checkbox, Mango, not checked."

> "Checkbox, Banana, not checked."

> "Checkbox, Grapes, not checked."

 

Radio buttons highlighted for question “Are you single? Yes/No.” NVDA Speech Viewer reads: “Are you single? Radio button not checked Yes. Radio button not checked No.”

 

Phase 2 Conclusion: Complex PDF Accessibility


Achieving ADA compliance for complex applications, forms, and other PDFs don’t have to be the thing that sends you looking for another job! You now have the step-by-step instructions for incorporating PDF accessibility best-practices into your workflows as well as how to overcome more complex PDF accessibility barriers, like those found in applications and forms.

 
                                     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 3 of PDF Accessibility Simplified?

 
In Phase 3 of PDF Accessibility Simplified, we are going to help you analyze the business operations and systems that may be creating and causing accessibility violations. It’s about knowing the inputs and testing the outputs. Why? Because in general, third party vendors, applications, and software systems are the biggest accessibility risks government agencies and municipalities have today.

Next week we’re releasing Phase 3 of PDF Accessibility Simplified. Subscribe to our free newsletter and get the link delivered straight to your inbox.

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