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Testing & Fixing Accessibility

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This page has information for testing and fixing accessibility using the following:

 

Documents submitted from outside resources must be tested and fixed before adding to Hunter's website.

Adobe Acrobat Pro

If you have access to Acrobat Pro, this is the easiest way to check and fix accessibility issues in PDFs that have already been created.

Check Accessibility of PDFs

Adobe Acrobat provides an automated way to check the accessibility of a PDF file. The Full Check feature in Acrobat checks a PDF for many of the characteristics of accessible PDFs. You can choose which accessibility problems to look for and how you want the results reported.

  • Choose Tools > Accessibility. The Accessibility toolset is displayed in the secondary toolbar.
  • In the secondary toolbar, click Full Check.

The Accessibility Checker Options dialog box is displayed:

  • In the Report Options section, select options for how you want to view the results. You can save the results as an HTML file on your system, or attach the results file to the document itself.
  • Select one or more of the Checking Options.
  • Click Start Checking. The results are displayed in the Accessibility Checker panel on the left, which also has helpful links and hints for repairing issues.
    Because the Full Check feature cannot distinguish between essential and nonessential content types, some issues it reports don’t affect readability. It’s a good idea to review all issues to determine which ones require correction.

The report displays one of the following statuses for each rule check:

  • Passed: The item is accessible.
  • Skipped By User: Rule was not checked because it wasn't selected in the Accessibility Checker Options dialog box.
  • Needs Manual Check: The Full Check feature couldn't check the item automatically. Verify the item manually.
  • Failed: The item didn't pass the accessibility check.

Make PDFs Accessible

The Make Accessible action walks you through the steps required to make a PDF accessible. It prompts you to address accessibility issues, such as a missing document description or title. It looks for common elements that need further action, such as scanned text, form fields, tables and images.

Steps to make an accessible document in Acrobat:

  • Choose Tools > Action Wizard. The Action Wizard toolset is displayed in the secondary toolbar.
  • From the Action List, click Make Accessible.
  • Select the files that you want to apply the Make Accessible action to. By default, the action runs on the document that's currently open.
  • Select Add Files to select additional files or a folder to run the action on.
  • Click Start.
  • Follow the prompts to complete the Make Accessible action.
  • Save updated PDF file.

Upon completion of testing, verify PDF accessibility with Acrobat’s Read Out Loud feature.

Find more information on Adobe to Create and verify PDF accessibility.

 

PAVE

PAVE, a PDF Accessibility Validation Engine, is a free browser tool that allows you to check for, and correct, the accessibility of your PDF documents.

 

 

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word has built in features to check and fix your document’s accessibility before you convert it to a PDF.

Additional Helpful Tutorials on the Accessibility Checker:

 

 

PowerPoint (PPT)

PowerPoint has built in features to check and fix your document’s accessibility before you convert it to a PDF.

PowerPoint is effective for face-to-face presentations, but it is usually not the best format for content on the web. PDF is often a better format to present PowerPoint presentations electronically. The file size is relatively small, distracting slide transitions are usually removed, and everyone has a PDF reader.

How to Run the Accessibility Checker in PowerPoint 

Run the Accessibility Checker in Windows or Mac.

  • Windows - Select File > Info. Select the Check for Issues button and choose Check Accessibility.
  • Mac - Select the Review tab, then choose Check Accessibility.

The Accessibility Checker sidebar will appear to the right.

  • The checker is a helpful tool that presents accessibility errors, warnings and tips for accessibility.
  • Selecting an item in the report will highlight the issue within the slide.
  • Information about the issue, and instructions on how to repair it, will appear at the bottom of the sidebar.

Fix all errors before converting to PDF.

 

 

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