Accessible and Usable PDF Documents:

Techniques for Document Authors

Fourth Edition

Karen McCall, M.Ed.

5

Contents

From the Author ................................................................................................................................................ 4

Dedication ............................................................................................................................................................ 4

Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 20

What is PDF? .................................................................................................................................................... 21

History of PDF Accessibility ...................................................................................................................... 22

Keep Current! .................................................................................................................................................. 24

Terminology .................................................................................................................................................... 26

AppKey .......................................................................................................................................................... 26

Activate .......................................................................................................................................................... 27

Focus .............................................................................................................................................................. 27

PDF/UA ......................................................................................................................................................... 29

Legacy PDF ................................................................................................................................................... 30

DAISY Books ................................................................................................................................................ 30

Repurpose Content or Documents ..................................................................................................... 30

Where to Start ................................................................................................................................................. 31

Accessibility and Usability Settings ........................................................................................................ 33

Updates to this Book .......................................................................................................................... 34

Who are those of us with Disabilities? ........................................................................................ 35

Blindness, Deaf/Blindness and Visual Disability............................................................................... 35

Visual Disabilities…well, Visualized! ................................................................................................. 38

Colour Contrast and those of us with Disabilities......................................................................... 41

Refreshable Braille Displays ................................................................................................................. 43

6

Episodic Disabilities ..................................................................................................................................... 45

Learning and Cognitive Disabilities ........................................................................................................ 47

Reading Strategies and People with Learning Disabilities ........................................................ 52

Communication Disabilities ....................................................................................................................... 53

Physical Disabilities ...................................................................................................................................... 58

Overview of Adaptive Technology .......................................................................................................... 58

Summary ........................................................................................................................................................... 60

Accessible Document Design Basics ............................................................................................. 62

Fonts and Font Sizes ..................................................................................................................................... 65

Font Alignment ........................................................................................................................................... 68

Text Effects .................................................................................................................................................. 69

Styles .............................................................................................................................................................. 71

Colour Contrast .............................................................................................................................................. 73

Plain Language and Grammar................................................................................................................... 77

Punctuation ...................................................................................................................................................... 79

Headings – Navigational Structures ....................................................................................................... 80

Modifying a Heading Style ..................................................................................................................... 82

Create a New Heading Style .................................................................................................................. 83

Paragraph Styles ........................................................................................................................................ 85

Tables of Content, Figures and Tables ................................................................................................... 91

Tables of Content Options ...................................................................................................................... 93

Updating a Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ 95

Contextual Links ............................................................................................................................................ 95

Page Numbers and Readability ................................................................................................................ 97

Columns ............................................................................................................................................................. 98

Bulleted and Numbered Lists in Word .................................................................................................. 99

Tables ............................................................................................................................................................... 102

Inserting a Table ...................................................................................................................................... 103

Identify the Table Header Row .......................................................................................................... 105

7

Do Not Let Rows Break Across Pages. ............................................................................................. 107

Adding Cell Padding to a Table .......................................................................................................... 109

Add a Caption to a Table ....................................................................................................................... 111

Add Alt Text to a Table .......................................................................................................................... 113

Summary ......................................................................................................................................................... 114

Overview of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC ........................................................................................... 115

Document View ............................................................................................................................................ 116

Home View ..................................................................................................................................................... 119

Tools Centre/Manage Tools .................................................................................................................... 120

Adding Accessibility Tools to the Navigation Pane ........................................................................ 127

Adding Tools to the Toolbar .................................................................................................................... 129

Overview of PDF/UA ....................................................................................................................... 131

Logical Document Structure ......................................................................................................... 134

Hierarchy of Tasks ...................................................................................................................................... 137

The Tags Tree ................................................................................................................................................ 138

The Tags Root and the Tags Tree ...................................................................................................... 143

Viewing the Tags Tree ........................................................................................................................... 147

Family Matters!............................................................................................................................................. 148

Elements and Artifacts .......................................................................................................................... 148

Deleting a Tags Tree ................................................................................................................................... 150

Logical Document Structure .................................................................................................................... 153

Templates ................................................................................................................................................... 154

Styles ............................................................................................................................................................ 154

Lists ............................................................................................................................................................... 157

Tables ........................................................................................................................................................... 159

Text Boxes .................................................................................................................................................. 160

Table of Contents and Bookmarks .................................................................................................... 160

Alt Text ........................................................................................................................................................ 161

Page Numbers ........................................................................................................................................... 164

8

Navigational Structures ........................................................................................................................ 165

Reading Preferences ....................................................................................................................... 167

Infer Reading Order – Reading Preferences ...................................................................................... 169

Screen Reader Options .............................................................................................................................. 174

Read Out Loud............................................................................................................................................... 176

Tagging Documents from Microsoft Office .............................................................................. 179

Acrobat Distiller ........................................................................................................................................... 179

Adobe Acrobat Add-in for Microsoft Office ....................................................................................... 181

Acrobat Ribbon in Microsoft Office 2016....................................................................................... 181

Advanced PDF Settings (General Category) .................................................................................. 188

Finally...Converting Word Documents! ........................................................................................... 194

Save as PDF in Microsoft Office .......................................................................................................... 195

Print to Adobe PDF ................................................................................................................................. 197

Acrobat Pro Tagging Tools ............................................................................................................ 199

Add Tags to a PDF Document .................................................................................................................. 199

Add Tags Report ...................................................................................................................................... 201

Highlight Content ......................................................................................................................................... 207

Select Text Tool ............................................................................................................................................ 209

Select Objects ............................................................................................................................................ 209

Modifying Tags with F2 ............................................................................................................................. 209

Create New Tag ............................................................................................................................................ 211

Create Tag from Selection ........................................................................................................................ 212

Find Tag from Selection ............................................................................................................................ 213

Reflow .............................................................................................................................................................. 216

Edit Text in Edit PDF Tools ...................................................................................................................... 217

Read Out Loud Text-to-Speech ............................................................................................................... 222

Order Panel and TouchUp Reading Order Tool..................................................................... 224

Making Repairs using the TouchUp Reading Order Tool ............................................................. 228

Table Editor In TouchUp Reading Order Tool .................................................................................. 243

9

Add Form Controls using TouchUp Reading Order tool ............................................................... 251

Content Panel..................................................................................................................................... 254

Action Wizard .................................................................................................................................... 262

Language and the <Span> Tag ..................................................................................................... 271

Core Language in a PDF Document ....................................................................................................... 271

Change the Language for a Tag .............................................................................................................. 273

Acronyms ............................................................................................................................................ 277

Pronunciation Dictionaries and Acronyms ....................................................................................... 280

Expansion Text for Acronyms ................................................................................................................. 281

Acronyms in Form Controls .................................................................................................................... 283

Using Acronyms in a Descriptive Document ..................................................................................... 284

Acronyms in a Tagged PDF Document ................................................................................................ 288

Columns ............................................................................................................................................... 292

Creating Columns in Microsoft Word .................................................................................................. 294

Tri-Fold Brochures ...................................................................................................................................... 297

Desktop Published Documents and Columns ................................................................................... 298

Tables and Columns Tutorial .................................................................................................................. 300

Alt Text and Graphics ...................................................................................................................... 301

Adding Alt Text in Word ........................................................................................................................... 302

Null Alt Text in Word, PowerPoint and Excel ................................................................................... 304

Figure Tags and Reading Order ............................................................................................................. 305

Adding a Caption to an Image ............................................................................................................. 307

Bullets and Numbering Basics ..................................................................................................... 309

Bulleted and Numbered Lists in Word ................................................................................................ 310

List Paragraph Style .................................................................................................................................... 314

Format Spacing for a Single List in a Word Document.................................................................. 315

Format Spacing for all Lists in a Word Document .......................................................................... 317

Creating a Well Structured List .............................................................................................................. 324

Images as Bullets ......................................................................................................................................... 326

10

Tables and PDF Documents .......................................................................................................... 330

Tables in a Tagged PDF Document ....................................................................................................... 331

Table Structure in Word ........................................................................................................................... 340

Tables for Design or Presentation ......................................................................................................... 343

Creating Tables in Word ........................................................................................................................... 351

Inserting a Table ...................................................................................................................................... 352

Header Rows Repeat .............................................................................................................................. 353

Rows Braking Across Pages ................................................................................................................ 355

Empty Table Cells .................................................................................................................................... 356

Adding Space in a Table/Cell Margins ................................................................................................. 356

Nested Tables ............................................................................................................................................ 358

Captions for Tables ................................................................................................................................. 360

Alt Text for Tables I Office 2016 ........................................................................................................ 361

Table Summary Attribute ......................................................................................................................... 362

Table Frames or Drawn Tables .............................................................................................................. 365

Links ..................................................................................................................................................... 369

Create Links from URL’s............................................................................................................................ 369

Creating Links with the Link Tool ......................................................................................................... 377

Create Links with the Select Text Tool ................................................................................................ 382

Repairing Broken Links ............................................................................................................................. 385

Text Boxes and Accessibility ........................................................................................................ 392

Improved Access to Inline Text Boxes ................................................................................................. 396

Paragraph Styles to Replace Text Boxes ............................................................................................. 397

Indenting a Paragraph from the Left and Right Margins ............................................................. 406

Headings, Headers, Headaches .................................................................................................... 409

Document Title ............................................................................................................................................. 409

Headings .......................................................................................................................................................... 413

Add a Heading in Microsoft Word ..................................................................................................... 417

Page Headers ................................................................................................................................................. 419

11

Table Headers ............................................................................................................................................... 422

Table Headers in Tagged PDF ................................................................................................................. 424

Multimedia in PDF Documents .................................................................................................... 429

Adding Multimedia in Acrobat ............................................................................................................... 429

Inserting Multimedia in Office 2013/2016 ....................................................................................... 441

Document Security .......................................................................................................................... 451

Trusted Assistive Technology ................................................................................................................. 452

Acrobat and Reader Compatibility Settings ...................................................................................... 453

Applying Security......................................................................................................................................... 454

Setting Security in Microsoft Office ...................................................................................................... 456

Setting Security in Adobe Acrobat ........................................................................................................ 458

Repair Techniques in Adobe Acrobat ....................................................................................... 462

Repairing Document Structure .............................................................................................................. 463

Remove Structure with the TouchUp Reading Order Tool ..................................................... 463

Language ......................................................................................................................................................... 465

Language for a Tag ...................................................................................................................................... 468

Language for a Word or Phrase.............................................................................................................. 470

Language Attribute in Word ............................................................................................................... 472

Tab Order for the Document ................................................................................................................... 472

Headings .......................................................................................................................................................... 475

Custom Styles and the Role Map ............................................................................................................ 483

Bookmarks ..................................................................................................................................................... 491

Paragraphs ..................................................................................................................................................... 495

Drop Caps ................................................................................................................................................... 496

Non-Unicode Characters ........................................................................................................................... 498

Columns ........................................................................................................................................................... 501

Lists ................................................................................................................................................................... 505

Repairing Non-Unicode Bullets .............................................................................................................. 510

Tables ............................................................................................................................................................... 514

12

Table Editor ................................................................................................................................................... 517

Disappearing Layers in Documents ...................................................................................................... 525

Reducing the Size of PDF Documents .................................................................................................. 527

Alt Text, Actual Text and Graphics ............................................................................................. 530

Alt Text for Images, Equations and Objects ....................................................................................... 531

Actual Text versus Alternate Text .................................................................................................... 532

Mathematical Equations and Scientific Notation ............................................................................ 534

Complex Diagrams and Equation Solution ........................................................................................ 536

Accessible Fillable Forms in Acrobat Pro DC .......................................................................... 539

Screen Readers and Forms ...................................................................................................................... 541

Form Design Best Practices ..................................................................................................................... 543

What Can Go Wrong? ............................................................................................................................. 560

Fillable Forms from a Scanned Document ..................................................................................... 562

Form Tools in Adobe Acrobat ................................................................................................................. 563

Unwanted Metadata Can Create Problems .................................................................................... 566

The Importance of ToolTips ................................................................................................................ 570

Required Field Notification ................................................................................................................. 572

Text Form Controls ..................................................................................................................................... 574

Previewing a Form .................................................................................................................................. 578

Clearing a Form after Preview ........................................................................................................... 578

Limiting the Number of Characters in a Text Form Control ................................................... 580

Form Control Appearance .................................................................................................................... 582

Auto Font Size (Appearance) .............................................................................................................. 585

Multi-line Text Form Controls ............................................................................................................ 587

Formatting a Form Control .................................................................................................................. 590

Calculations in Form Controls ............................................................................................................ 594

Calculated Form without JavaScript ................................................................................................ 601

Repeating Information in a Form ...................................................................................................... 608

Check Boxes in a PDF Form ..................................................................................................................... 612

13

Duplicating Check Boxes in a PDF form .......................................................................................... 617

Pinning Form Control Tools ................................................................................................................ 621

Distributing Form Controls Evenly .................................................................................................. 622

Radio Buttons in a PDF Form .................................................................................................................. 624

Aligning Form Controls Horizontally and Vertically ................................................................. 631

Resize Radio Buttons and Check Boxes .......................................................................................... 632

Dropdown Lists ............................................................................................................................................ 635

List versus Dropdown Lists ................................................................................................................. 641

Combo List Form Controls ................................................................................................................... 645

Digital Signature Form Control (Digital ID) ...................................................................................... 647

An Alternative to a Digital Signature ............................................................................................... 650

Adding the Tags to a Form ....................................................................................................................... 651

Accessibility Full Check for Forms .................................................................................................... 654

Remediating the Tagged Form ........................................................................................................... 655

Extend Features in Adobe Reader ......................................................................................................... 660

Oops, I Forgot a Form Control! ............................................................................................................... 662

Missing Form Elements in Accessibility Full Check ................................................................... 666

Add Form Controls using TouchUp Reading Order tool .......................................................... 669

Accessible Forms using Adobe AEM Form Designer ............................................................ 672

The Form Designer User Interface ........................................................................................................ 673

Getting Help/”How To” Palette .......................................................................................................... 677

Standard Form Controls Palette ........................................................................................................ 680

Form Control Properties ...................................................................................................................... 681

Custom Form Control Palette ............................................................................................................. 683

Hierarchy and PDF Structure Palettes ............................................................................................ 686

Renaming Elements in the Hierarchy Palette .............................................................................. 689

Tab Order Palette .................................................................................................................................... 691

Layout Palette ........................................................................................................................................... 698

Font and Paragraph Palettes ............................................................................................................... 699

14

Style Catalog Palette ............................................................................................................................... 701

Form Designer Options ......................................................................................................................... 701

Why use Form Designer? .......................................................................................................................... 714

Form Designer Accessibility Checker .............................................................................................. 715

Adding ToolTips for Form Controls...................................................................................................... 719

Resizing Form Elements ........................................................................................................................... 723

Required Fields in Form Designer ........................................................................................................ 725

Form Templates ........................................................................................................................................... 727

Spell Check in Form Designer ............................................................................................................. 732

Adding Elements to the Library ......................................................................................................... 733

Creating a Form Designer Form ............................................................................................................. 737

Basic Parts of a Form Designer Form .............................................................................................. 738

Saving the Form ....................................................................................................................................... 739

Instructional Text Block in Form Designer ................................................................................... 739

Text Fields Form Controls in Form Designer ............................................................................... 743

Check Box Form Controls in Form Designer................................................................................. 747

Dropdown List Form Controls in Form Designer ....................................................................... 750

List Form Controls in Form Designer .............................................................................................. 753

Combo List Form Controls in Form Designer ............................................................................... 756

Radio Button Form Controls in Form Designer ........................................................................... 758

Switching Radio Button Positions ..................................................................................................... 762

Digital Signatures in Form Designer ................................................................................................ 764

Date Form Controls in Form Designer ................................................................................................ 766

Summary ......................................................................................................................................................... 770

Scanned Documents to Tagged PDF ........................................................................................... 771

OCR in Adobe acrobat Pro DC ................................................................................................................. 773

Step 1: The TIF Files ............................................................................................................................... 773

Step 2: Inserting Pages into a PDF Document .............................................................................. 774

Step 2: Recognizing Text (OCR) ......................................................................................................... 775

15

Step 3: Creating the Links in the Document .................................................................................. 778

Step 4: Tagging the Document ........................................................................................................... 781

Step 5: Examining the Order Panel ................................................................................................... 783

Step 6: Examining the Tags Tree ....................................................................................................... 785

Additional Techniques for Scanned Documents .............................................................................. 789

Edit PDF Tools ................................................................................................................................... 792

Adding and Editing Content..................................................................................................................... 792

Replacing Images ......................................................................................................................................... 795

Add a Header and Footer in Adobe Acrobat...................................................................................... 798

Adding a Watermark using Edit PDF ................................................................................................... 808

Add Bates Numbering ............................................................................................................................ 814

Organize Pages Tools ...................................................................................................................... 820

Deleting and Inserting Pages................................................................................................................... 820

Watermarks and Confidential Documents ......................................................................................... 826

Combining Tagged PDF Documents ..................................................................................................... 835

Combining Secure Documents ................................................................................................................ 839

Bookmarks ......................................................................................................................................... 841

Legal Documents: Redaction ........................................................................................................ 845

Manual Solutions ......................................................................................................................................... 846

Redaction Tools Overview ....................................................................................................................... 846

Redaction Tool for Microsoft Word ...................................................................................................... 847

JAWS and Redacted Content in Word .................................................................................................. 853

Converting the Redacted Word Document to Tagged PDF ......................................................... 856

Redacting Content in a Word Form ...................................................................................................... 858

Redaction Tools in Adobe Acrobat........................................................................................................ 863

PDF from Web Pages ....................................................................................................................... 879

Adobe Portfolio ................................................................................................................................. 883

Adobe InDesign Desktop Publishing ......................................................................................... 886

Adobe Acrobat Pro Preflight ........................................................................................................ 887

17

Refreshable Braille Display ...................................................................................................................... 940

Six Pack ............................................................................................................................................................ 942

Text-to-Speech or TTS ............................................................................................................................... 943

The JAWS Screen Reader .......................................................................................................................... 944

JAWS Startup Wizard ............................................................................................................................. 945

Changing How Fast JAWS Speaks ...................................................................................................... 952

JAWS Settings and User Testing ........................................................................................................ 953

JAWS Basics ............................................................................................................................................... 956

Adjusting the JAWS Rate of Speech .................................................................................................. 956

Text/Navigation/Reading (JAWS) .................................................................................................... 957

JAWS Quick Keys...................................................................................................................................... 957

Tables (JAWS) ........................................................................................................................................... 958

Forms (JAWS) ........................................................................................................................................... 959

The NVDA Screen Reader ......................................................................................................................... 960

NVDA Basics .............................................................................................................................................. 962

Text/Navigation Keyboard Commands (NVDA) ......................................................................... 962

Adjusting the NVDA Rate of Speech ................................................................................................. 963

NVDA Quick Keys .................................................................................................................................... 963

Tables (NVDA) .......................................................................................................................................... 964

Forms (NVDA) .......................................................................................................................................... 964

Strategy for testing PDF document accessibility ............................................................................. 965

Opening the PDF document ................................................................................................................. 965

Headings ..................................................................................................................................................... 966

Graphics (Alt Text) .................................................................................................................................. 969

Lists ............................................................................................................................................................... 972

Links ............................................................................................................................................................. 973

Tables ........................................................................................................................................................... 974

Forms................................................................................................................................................................ 977

Appendix A: Braille Alphabet ....................................................................................................... 979

18

Appendix B: JAWS PDF Keyboard Commands ........................................................................ 983

Text Navigation and Reading Commands .......................................................................................... 983

Link Commands ............................................................................................................................................ 984

Heading Commands .................................................................................................................................... 984

Form Commands .......................................................................................................................................... 984

Tables Commands ....................................................................................................................................... 985

Appendix C: NVDA Keyboard Commands ................................................................................ 987

NVDA Basics................................................................................................................................................... 987

Tables ............................................................................................................................................................... 988

Single Letter Navigation ............................................................................................................................ 988

Form Controls ............................................................................................................................................... 989

Appendix D: PDF/UA Checkpoints ............................................................................................. 990

Checkpoint 01: Real content tagged ..................................................................................................... 990

Checkpoint 02: Role mapping ................................................................................................................. 992

Checkpoint 03: Flickering ......................................................................................................................... 992

Checkpoint 04: Color and Contrast ....................................................................................................... 993

Checkpoint 05: Sound ................................................................................................................................ 993

Checkpoint 06: Role mapping ................................................................................................................. 994

Checkpoint 07: Dictionary ........................................................................................................................ 994

Checkpoint 08: OCR Validation .............................................................................................................. 994

Checkpoint 09: Appropriate Tags ......................................................................................................... 994

Checkpoint 10: Character Mappings .................................................................................................... 995

Checkpoint 11: Declared Natural Language ...................................................................................... 995

Checkpoint 12: Stretchable Characters ............................................................................................... 996

Checkpoint 13: Graphics ........................................................................................................................... 997

Checkpoint 14: Headings .......................................................................................................................... 997

Appendix E: Finding Highlighted Content ............................................................................... 999

Finding Formatting in a Word Document ....................................................................................... 1000

Create a Custom Highlight Text Style ............................................................................................... 1001

19

Finding the Style in a Word Document ............................................................................................ 1004

Using Highlighting in Word .................................................................................................................. 1008

Return Find to Default ........................................................................................................................ 1011

Getting Formatting Information with JAWS .............................................................................. 1011

Find Formatted Text in tagged PDF Documents .......................................................................... 1012

Repairing PDF to Find Formatting ..................................................................................................... 1014

Index ................................................................................................................................................... 1017