Throughout this page you will find tutorials and resources to help you in creating fully accessible PDFs. The goal for this page is for it to grow over time to add more tips and techniques so that you can better serve those who access your online documents.
Adobe Acrobat Pro is necessary for remediating PDF files. The application is available via Adobe Creative Cloud. If you need assistance in obtaining Adobe Creative Cloud, contact helpdesk@wichita.edu for assistance.
For questions related to PDF remediation, please submit a Support Request via the Support Form.
PDFs Sourced from Microsoft Word Documents
Most PDFs our team encounter that require remediation have been exported from Microsoft Word. If the document has been remediated in Word before export to PDF, It can dramatically reduce - or even eliminate - any need to remediate the final PDF in Acrobat Pro. For tutorials and best practices on remediation and optimized accessibility options for Word documents, please visit our Microsoft Word Remediation for Accessibility webpage.
Note: Fillable form documents requiring users to provide information ALWAYS require PDF remediation. For fillable form PDFs, please refer to the Basic and Advanced PDF Form Remediation tutorials below.
Microsoft Word Remediation for Accessibility
Additional Accessibility Considerations
These points are covered in more detail in the Document Creation: Best Practices section of the Microsoft Word Remediation for Accessibility webpage.
- Do not use headers or footers
- Do not use footnotes - incorporate any and all important information into the main content text itself
- Break up complicated, multitopic tables into separate tables
- Utilize headings to greatly improve document navigation in screenreader applications
- Avoid using scanned PDFs - they are actually images instead of text, require Optical Character Recognition to translate to text, and the worse the quality of the scan, the less effective (therefore, less accessible) the end result will be
Document Creation: Best Practices
Tutorials Menu
Click the button for the tutorial section you wish to use.
Tutorial 1: Exporting Remediated Word Documents
Note: Fillable form documents requiring users to provide information ALWAYS require PDF remediation. For fillable form PDFs, please refer to the Basic and Advanced PDF Form Remediation tutorials below.
Tutorial 2: Basic PDF Remediation for Accessibility
We recommend watching the video in fullscreen mode so all tools and tags are clearly visible.
Practice Files
Samples of the PDFs presented in the videos are included in downloadable ZIP format. One is a nonremediated version that can be used for practice or to follow along with the video, and the other is a completed version that can be used for structure review.
Basic PDF Practice File - For use in practicing PDF remediation along with the instructional video.
Basic PDF Remediated - a finished version of the Practice File that can be used as a reference.
Basic PDF Remediation, Part One: Introduction and Autotag Method
Basic PDF Remediation, Part Two: Manual Tagging Method
Tutorial 3: Basic PDF Form Remediation for Accessibility
We recommend watching the videos in fullscreen mode so all tools and tags are clearly visible.
Practice Files
Samples of the PDFs presented in the videos are included in downloadable ZIP format. One is a nonremediated version that can be used for practice or to follow along with the video, and the other is a completed version that can be used for structure review.
Basic PDF Form Practice File - For use in practicing PDF form remediation along with the instructional videos.
Basic PDF Form Remediated - a finished version of the Practice File that can be used as a reference.
Basic PDF Form Remediation, Part One: Prepare Form
Basic PDF Form Remediation, Part Two: Tags
Basic PDF Form Remediation, Part Three: Reading Order and Final Corrections
Tutorial 4: Advanced PDF Form Remediation for Accessibility
We recommend watching the videos in fullscreen mode so all tools and tags are clearly visible.
Practice Files for Tutorial Videos 1 through 10
Samples of the PDFs presented in the videos are included in downloadable ZIP format. One is a nonremediated version that can be used for practice or to follow along with the video, and the other is a completed version that can be used for structure review.
Advanced PDF Form Practice File - For use in practicing PDF form remediation along with the instructional videos.
Advanced PDF Form Remediated - a finished version of the Practice File that can be used as a reference.
The Website team would like to wish the Human Resources team a huge "Thank You" for allowing us to use this file for the tutorial.
Advanced PDF Form Remediation, Part One: Prepare Form, Page One
Advanced PDF Form Remediation, Part Two: Prepare Form, Page Two
Advanced PDF Form Remediation, Part Three: Prepare Form, Page Three
Advanced PDF Form Remediation, Part Four: Prepare Form, Page Four
Advanced PDF Form Remediation, Part Five: Autotagging and Organization
Advanced PDF Form Remediation, Part Six: Page One Tags
Advanced PDF Form Remediation, Part Seven: Page One Reading Order
Advanced PDF Form Remediation, Part Eight: Page Two, Tags and Reading Order
Advanced PDF Form Remediation, Part Nine: Page Three, Tags and Reading Order
Advanced PDF Form Remediation, Part Ten: Page Four, Tags and Reading Order; Final Check
Resource Documents
ARC 2020 and Accessibility Summer Camp 2020 Presentation PDFs
ARC 2020 Presentation - Presentation created for WSU Faculty and Staff
Accessibility Summer Camp 2020 Presentation - More general presentation, with WSU-only material removed
Tagging Annotations - How to tag annotations that Autotagging misses.