SAIF: A Brief Guide to PDFs and Accessibility
2.3 PDF Accessibility Checker
You need to have a full copy of Acrobat Professional installed to carry out a full accessibility check. The accessibility features in Acrobat have become more comprehensive with each new version. The latest version is Acrobat X.
Clicking on Advanced in the Toolbar; Accessibility; and then Full Check will generate an Accessibility Report and hints on how to correct some errors such as missing alternative text and potential mistakes in tab order (reading order).
Changes can be done in Acrobat, but it can be easier to make changes in your source document and then reconvert it. This also means that your source document will be as accessible as possible.
Please note that the Checker is not comprehensive. It might give a "No problems found" report in a text-only document with Headings created by highlighting, emboldening and enlarging and no Meta-Information.
This is why we emphasise throughout this guide the need to create accessible source documents.
Visit the WebAIM website at:
http://webaim.org/techniques/acrobat
for a comprehensive guide to PDFs and accessibility using Acrobat.