Making Adobe PDF Documents More Accessible

Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) Files alone are still not accessible for many people with disabilities. However, steps can be taken to provide an accessible HTML equivalent document or to provide "Tagged PDF".

• Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Techniques from WebAIM.org
• Accessible PDFs from Planet PDF
• How to Make Tagged PDFs -- EASI's Free Web Conference on Accessible PDF
• What is "Tagged PDF" from Planet PDF
• Creating Accessible Adobe PDF Documents slideshow from the High Tech Center Training Unit
• Creating Accessible PDF Documents with Acrobat 6.0 (in PDF format) -- you will need the free Adobe Reader software to access this file)
• Alternative Media Tutorials -- How to Create Accessible Accessible Adobe PDF Files
• Create special gateway pages to spare your users the misery of being dumped into PDF files without warning

Quick Tip: Section 508 requires that whenever PDF (or other documents that require specific software) are offered on your site, you must include a link to download the viewer software or plug-in.

• How to Create Accessible Adobe PDF Files Booklet from adobe.com
• Adobe Acrobat files -- Advanced Techniques for Creating Accessible PDF files (in PDF format) -- you will need the free Adobe Reader software to access this link)
• Adobe Online conversion tools for Adobe PDF documents
• Making PDF Documents Accessible from the Access E-Learning tutorial of the Georgia Tech Research on Accessible Distance Education (GRADE) project at Georgia Tech

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