How to Make Your PDFs Work for Everyone

Introduction

One of the most commonly used ways to share information online are PDFs (Portable Document Format). You can use them for manuals, reports, brochures and even more. But not all PDFs are easy for everyone to use, particularly those blind or those who have visual impairments, hearing challenges or mobility issues.

Why Accessibility Is Important

Inclusivity is what makes your content accessible to all, from people with disabilities, to senior citizens, to children. For example:

• These include tools that people who are blind or have low vision rely on to read aloud, the text.

• Since color blindness may exist among the people, it is important to provide significant difference between colors used for text and background.

• Because users with mobility impairments may use keyboards rather than a mouse to navigate, these features may also benefit other users too.

Making PDFs accessible lets you invite this audience and has a better user experience for everyone.

Benefits of Making Accessible PDFs

1. Reach a Larger Audience

Your content is accessible in PDFs, which means that both people with disabilities and without can access it.

2. Enhance User Experience

Structuring documents well to be accessible to everyone including those with disabilities.

3. Meet Legal Requirements

The ADA, the WCAG and so many other laws mandate that digital content must be made accessible.

4. Improve Brand Reputation

Showing commitment to accessibility says a lot about whether your business cares about all users, and is inclusive.

How to Make Your PDFs Work for Everyone

1. Start with Accessibility in Mind

Before you make a PDF, plan for accessibility. You can structure out your content with nice headings, lists, and descriptive text for links, using programs like Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Put these documents into PDFs and retain legibility once saved.

2. Use Proper Headings

Headings help your users navigate your content: they break it up into sections. For example:

• Must use 'Heading 1' for the main title.

• There are uses with "Heading 2" and "Heading 3" for the sub sections.

These headings are what screen readers rely on to be able to navigate users through the document.

3. Add Alt Text for Images

Images have a description (alt text) that describes the images’ content for people who don’t see them. Important for graph charts, picture visuals. For example:

• You could write for the pie chart –” Pie chart of 20% revenue growth by 2024”.

Alt textual content must be short but descriptive sufficient to carry the image’s cause.

4. Enable Searchable Text

It’s possible that the PDF you have was generated from the scanning of a record and for us it’s simply an image that isn’t easily readable by screen readers. Of course, you should use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software program to turn the scanned text into editable and searchable content.

5. Ensure Proper Contrast

Users should be able to read the content on the text and background colors should have enough contrast. For instance:

• The text should be black on white for best readability.

• Especially, don’t write using light grey on white, it can be hard to read.

6. Provide Descriptive Links

Nobody likes the phrase ‘Click Here’; change it to ‘Download Annual Report’ or ‘Check out Our Website.’ There is less confusion for users of the link as to which way the link will direct them.

7. Include Bookmarks for Navigation

Users can not only read and become familiar with web pages through bookmarks, but also jump to specific sections in a PDF quickly. As an example, assume you have a huge document like a user manual, where you can place book marks such as ‘Introduction’, ‘Table of Contents’ and ‘FAQs’.

8. Test Your PDF for Accessibility

Run through your PDF with accessibility tools before sharing it. Some tools you can use include:

• Adobe Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker: It provides areas that require improvement.

• PAC 3 (PDF Accessibility Checker): A free PDF testing tool that tests PDFs against accessibility standards.

Tools to Help You Create Accessible PDFs

1. Adobe Acrobat Pro: It has the features to edit, check and improve PDF accessibility.

2. Microsoft Word: It enables creating well-structured documents accessible before converting them to PDFs.

3. WAVE Accessibility Tool: Identifies accessibility problems in content on the web, e.g. PDFs.

4. NVDA (Nonvisual Desktop Access): A screen reader that allows you to test PDFs to learn how visually impaired people read your PDF.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Skipping Alt Text

If you don’t include alt text for your images, people using screen readers cannot read your PDF.

2. Overcomplicating Navigation

Use clean navigation and clear headings with bookmarks.

3. Using Unreadable Fonts

Always use standard fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman and don’t go into fancy fonts, because they can get hard to read.

4. Ignoring Accessibility Testing

When you share PDFs, test them first guaranteeing they comply with accessibility standards.

The Future of Accessible PDFs

The more technology moves forward, the more important it will be to create accessible PDFs. And we can use tools like artificial intelligence (AI) to help automate accessibility improvements to make it easy for businesses and individuals to create inclusive content.

Investing in accessible PDF today is good for your brand because it keeps you on the cutting edge, ensures you're compliant with the regulations, and opens you up to reach a new audience.

Conclusion

How to create accessible PDFs is a simple, yet powerful way to make sure your content is usable by anyone, including people with disabilities. Organizing with headings, including alt text, ensuring good contrast, and testing for accessibility, all aligned with inclusive and user-friendly document.

Making your PDFs easily readable and viewable make your PDFs more user friendly, increase your reachability and show that you care about inclusivity. On top of that, they are important for helping your business achieve compliance with accessibility laws and a good reputation. For more information visit ELOIACS.