Alternative Media Tutorials

How to Create Accessible Adobe PDF File

This tutorial tells you how you can use Adobe Acrobat 5.0 software and Adobe Acrobat Capture 3.0 to optimize your documents for distribution as Adobe PDF files that can be read easily with the aid of Windows-based assistive technology such as screen readers.
You can convert any electronic document or HTML to Adobe PDF using Adobe Acrobat 5.0, and any scanned page to searchable Adobe PDF using Adobe Acrobat Capture 3.0 software.

Working with Microsoft Office 2000 Application Files

Create your documents in Word 2000, rather than in Word 97. If they are already in Word 97, open and save them in Word 2000. Word 2000 lets you create tagged Adobe PDF, which has greater functionality for accessibility than the structured Adobe PDF created from Word 97 documents.
When you write a document in Microsoft Word, be sure to use styles to format text such as titles, headings, and paragraphs. The styles provide structure information when you create a tagged Adobe PDF file. For example, do not use the Enter key to add space between paragraphs. Instead, use the "Spacing Before" and "Spacing After" paragraph properties to achieve this effect.
Use the Columns command in Word to create columns. Do not use tabs to simulate double-column text.
Use the Insert Table command or Draw Table tool in Word to create tables.
Add alternate text to all images. For example, in Word, you can add alternate text describing an image by using the Web tab of the illustrations Properties dialog box.
If you create an illustration out of several smaller illustrations, use the Group command to group them into a single illustration.

Working with Existing PDF Files

If you have the original file on which the PDF was based, convert it to a new Adobe PDF file using the
latest version of the originating application and Acrobat 5.0. Then follow the instructions in "Using
the Make Accessible Plug-in" below, which is available as a free download at the Adobe Web site at
www.adobe.com.

The Make Accessible plug-in enables Acrobat 5.0 to convert untagged PDF files, such as those created with Acrobat 4.0, to accessible (tagged) Adobe PDF.
This works also with files that were not made in MS 2000 applications, such as MS Word 97.

Working with Scanned and Paper Documents

This section describes how to make tagged Adobe PDF files if your source document is a paper document, a scanned image of a paper document, or a PDF Image Only file. You can create the PDF Image file using Acrobat 5.0 with a scanner, but the result is that the text is not recognizable by the application as characters and words and cannot be read by the screen reader like JAWS.

If you want to be able to search, correct, and copy the text in a PDF Image Only file and make it accessible as tagged Adobe PDF, you need to "capture" the pages in the file with Adobe Acrobat Capture 3.0 software (http://www.adobe.com).

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Alternative Media Tutorials

How to Create Accessible Adobe PDF File

Working with Microsoft Office 2000 Application Files

Working with Existing PDF Files

Working with Scanned and Paper Documents

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