Digital accessibility for PDFs

To meet digital accessibility requirements, Missouri Online recommends eliminating or minimizing the number of PDFs in your. If this is not possible, address all PDF accessibility barriers to provide an inclusive learning experience.

Reconsidering the use of PDFs

The Portable Document Format, or PDF, has been considered a gold standard for creating and distributing files since the early 1990s. However, because the format was created primarily for disseminating print documents, it poses a number of challenges in the digital environment:

• Ensuring the digital accessibility of PDFs requires access to Adobe Acrobat Pro, an application that many campus departments will not be able to subsidize and that also has a steep learning curve.

• Creating digitally accessible PDFs requires work, time and skill — more than is required to create accessible Word documents, PowerPoint slide decks and Canvas Pages. Moreover, even when you export accessible documents to PDF, you might lose some of the accessible design and need to recreate it in the PDF. (However, ensuring that your source document is accessible is still a critical first step toward ensuring the accessibility of your PDF.)

• Editing PDFs can be cumbersome; often, the edits must take place in the original document and then be re-exported to PDF.

• PDFs are difficult to read on mobile devices. We still think of smartphones as a luxury, but as many as 99 percent of students own one, and most will use it to access their course materials.

What to use instead of PDFs

Follow these steps to minimize the number of PDFs in your course or even eliminate them completely:

• For information that will be read online, use the Canvas Rich Content Editor. For example, instead of attaching a PDF with the instructions to an assignment, enter those instructions in the body of the assignment prompt. Instructional narrative (e.g., written lectures) can be created with Canvas Pages.

• If you must share files, choose the original Word or PowerPoint files instead of converting to PDF. (If you worry that students might dishonestly edit and distribute these files, note that a determined student could do so with a PDF.)

• Some faculty like to create PDFs of online articles and upload those to Canvas for students. A much better practice is to link directly to the original webpage. Linking to an HTML page not only is more accessible but also respects copyright. If you are concerned that the link might break, you can save the PDF as a backup (and follow the steps below to ensure it is accessible). For paywalled articles, use a gift link or work with your campus library to ensure ethical access.

Using UDOIT to provide alternatives to PDFs

In July 2024, Missouri Online launched a pilot of an upgraded version of UDOIT, a tool in Canvas designed to identify digital accessibility issues within your course and provide guidance to correct them. One of the most powerful features of this upgrade is the ability to generate alternate formats of course content, including PDFs. See Creating Alternate Formats with UDOIT to learn how to turn your PDFs into Canvas pages or even audio files. 

IMPORTANT: UDOIT can identify accessibility barriers within PDF files, but you must have access to Acrobat Pro to correct them. Moreover, you must still check alternate formats created with UDOIT, including auto-tagged PDFs, for accessibility. 

Access to Adobe Acrobat Pro

The rest of these instructions will require access to Adobe Acrobat Pro:

• MU: The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) offers Adobe Acrobat as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud. An annual license costs $60.

• UMSL: Information Technology Services (ITS) provides access to the Adobe Suite. Check with your department to confirm access. 

• UMKC: See Information Services for access and licensing for Adobe Creative Cloud. The cost is $275 per year for faculty and staff, though it is also available at some computer lab locations.

• S&T: A subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud costs $150 per year, billed at $12.50 per month.

Addressing accessibility barriers with scanned PDFs 

The most problematic PDFs are scanned files, as these are usually read online as images and not as text. The first step toward PDF accessibility is ensuring that it has optical character recognition, or OCR. Can you copy and paste text from your PDF? If not, then you must first edit it so that it has OCR.

In Acrobat Pro, follow these steps:

1. Go to Tools > Scan & OCR > Enhance Scan > Recognize Text > In This File.

2. Select Settings in the toolbar. The Recognize Text dialog box is displayed.

3. In the Output drop-down list, choose Searchable Image or Searchable Image (exact) and click OK.

4. Select Recognize Text in the toolbar.

If you are creating a new scan, ask your department or library for access to an OCR-enabled scanner. 

Exporting Microsoft documents to PDF

As previously mentioned, you must still check Microsoft documents exported as PDFs for accessibility, and you should resolve any remaining issues. However, starting with an accessible Microsoft document and then following these steps to export it will streamline the rest of the process of creating accessible PDFs. 

• In your Microsoft document, select File and then, depending on the options provided, Save As or Save a Copy. 

• Select Browse and then, under File Format (it may be a drop down menu under the document title), select PDF.

• On a Mac, select “Best for electronic distribution and accessibility (uses Microsoft online service).” Then select Export. You might be prompted to allow the export to continue.
  

• On a PC, select Options, then select Document structure tags for accessibility. Save.
  

Checking PDF accessibility

Regardless of how your PDF was created, you must check it for accessibility and resolve any barriers before you share it with students.

1. In your open PDF, select All Tools > Prepare for Accessibility (Mac) or Accessibility (PC)

2. Select Check for Accessibility (Mac) or Accessibility Check (PC)

3. In the Accessibility Checker Options dialog box, leave all default settings selected, and then select Start Checking.
   
   

4. The checker will identify issues with the following:

   • Document

   • Page Content

   • Forms

   • Alternative Text

   • Tables

   • Lists

   • Headings

5. Select the arrow beside each to view and begin addressing any issues.
   

Editing PDF document properties

An accessible PDF must have a title and a defined language. To set or edit either of these, select File > Document Properties.

The document title can be set in the Description tab.

Set the document language in the Advanced tab.

Be sure to select OK to save your changes.

Checking color contrast in PDF

Color contrast must be checked manually. See Accessibility skills: Color to learn how to use the WebAIM Color Contrast Checker to do this.

Learn More

• Adobe Acrobat User Guide:

  • Create and verify PDF accessibility

  • Accessibility features in PDFs

  • Creating accessible PDFs

  • Acrobat Accessibility series [video tutorials]

• PDF Accessibility. WebAIM.

• Usability and Accessibility Issues with PDFs. (August 17, 2022). University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health Web Strategy

• Jakob Nielsen and Anna Kaley. (June 28, 2020). Avoid PDF for On-Screen Reading. Nielsen Norman Group.

Neil Williams. (July 16, 2018). Why GOV.UK content should be published in HTML and not PDF. Government Digital Service blog.