Guidance on PDF's and other documents
The use of PDF's as well as other documents such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel should be avoided as much as possible. This is because linking to those documents takes the user away from a webpage which screen readers and other assistive technology may struggle with. Content within these documents tend to have numerus accessibility failings which exclude users who rely on assistive technology not being able to access that information.
Where possible place the content that sits inside a PDF or a document such a Word on a page instead.
Tools to help ensure documents and PDF's are accessible
There are some cases in which a PDF or document needs to be uploaded to a website. For example, the document is a template or needs to be in a document format for legal reasons. Any PDF or document that is uploaded to a website must be accessible. To ensure they are accessible you can use tools such as Microsoft's Accessibility Checker, Adobe Acrobat Pro and/or PAVE.
Accessibility Checker within Office 365 Applications
Microsoft Office applications such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel all have accessibility tools built-in. This allows you to make the content inside the raw document accessible before either uploading it to a website or exporting it as a PDF.
Adobe Acrobat Pro
Adobe Acrobat Pro is a paid-for software that enables you to view, edit and convert PDF documents. Adobe Acrobat also has accessibility tools which can be used to check the PDF's accessibility as well as being able to convert it to PDF/A format. PDF/A format ensures the document will continue to work for a long time after it’s published, even if things like fonts you used to create it are no longer supported.
If you do not have this software, you can either:
- Contact the Webteam via email and request the PDF be converted to Microsoft Word format. This will then allow you to run the Microsoft's Accessibility Checker and fix any issues. You'll be able to export it back into PDF format once the issues have been fixed using Microsoft Word.
- Use PAVE and PDF Online to check the accessibility of the document.
PAVE
PAVE is an online tool that can be used alongside PDF Online to ensure the content inside the document is accessible and the document itself is saved out as PDF/A format. PAVE does have a size limit of 5MB but is useful if you do not have Adobe Acrobat Pro when needing to ensure your PDF is accessible. PDF Online allows you to convert your PDF to the PDF/A format, which ensures the document will continue to work for a long time after it’s published, even if things like fonts you used to create it are no longer supported.
Watch our tutorial below to learn how to use PAVE to make the content inside the PDF accessible and PDF Online to convert it to the accessible PDF/A format.
Prior to sharing online...
Prior to sharing any document online please ensure you have set a title and language on the document. This helps users with assistive technology.
- Learn how to set the title using Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Learn how to set the language of a document using Microsoft Office
- Learn how to set the language of a document using Adobe Acrobat Pro
If you are using PAVE to check your document, it will allow you to add both of these properties if they have not be set.
If you have a PDF that is too large to upload to PAVE and do not have Adobe Acrobat Pro to set the title or language, email the Webteam. We can set this for you. If the PDF is not accessible, we'll inform you of this and convert it back to Microsoft Word format if you do not have the raw document to allow you to run the necessary checks using Microsoft's Accessibility Checker.