Accessible PDFs from Acrobat

Overview

We have over 12 years’ experience in training in creating accessible PDFs from Acrobat. We are ready to give you all the help you need to make your documents fully accessible and compliant with the requirements of the recently adopted EU Accessibility Directive. 

This course covers all aspects of tagging and otherwise editing PDFs to make them fully accessible using Acrobat Professional, and optionally, advanced editing tools such as axesPDF QuickFix.

Having completed the course, you should be able to tag PDFs from scratch, or edit and finish PDFs created in InDesign or Word, and to then test them for accessibility against standards, using both automated accessibility checkers and multiple assistive technologies (not just screen readers).

Course materials

Each delegate will receive a printed and bound course manual covering the entire course content (typically 100+ pages), including numerous links to essential free downloadable tools and other online resources, a WCAG 2.1 checklist and screen reader “cheat sheets”.

Core topics

  • Overview of the relevant standards (WCAG 2.1 and PDF/UA)
  • Applying document structure
  • Understanding both PDF reading orders
  • How to write appropriate alt text
  • Optimising infographics and other complex images for dyslexic and other print disabled users
  • Tables: from simple to complex
  • 8 must-know linking techniques
  • Navigation: tables of contents, bookmarks and page numbering
  • Footnotes and endnotes
  • Scanned documents
  • Document management 
  • Issues with browser plug-ins 
  • Benchmarking against standards
  • Testing with (and understanding the limitations of) automated accessibility checkers
  • Testing with multiple assistive technologies

Optional topics

  • Introduction to scripting to solve accessibility problems
  • Dealing with mathematical expressions
  • Using axesPDF QuickFix

Details

  • Audience: web editors, managers and publishers, graphic designers, academics, libraries and anyone needing to make PDFs fully accessible
  • Participants: we recommend a maximum of 6
  • Duration: 1 day (additional time may be required if optional topics are covered)
  • Prerequisites: none

Client testimonials

Anybody wishing to know more about accessible PDFs should look no further.

David Barrett, BT Senior Inclusion and Accessibility Manager

Ted delivered fantastic PDF accessibility training that was engaging, knowledgeable and easy to follow.

Pete Modral, Senior Digital and Marketing Manager at Equality and Human Rights Commission