Checklist Poster

Converting Word Documents into accessible Portable Document Formats (PDFs)

The Disability Discrimination Act states that you must ensure your services are accessible to disabled people.

Some basic tips to meet the needs of disabled people:

Checking your source document is accessible before conversion

• Format the source document using styles (strip out double returns, and don’t use tabs or spaces to create tables).
  
• Add appropriate labels to all images.
  
• Avoid complex layouts with overlapping elements.
  
• Complete the ‘Summary’ information in the ‘Properties’ section of your document.  By providing information (for example, the title, author, subject and key words) which describes your document you will make it easier for others to search and find your document.

Converting your document into PDF

• Use the latest version of Adobe Acrobat to convert documents to PDF.
  
• Ensure ‘enable accessibility and reflow with tagged PDF’ is checked in the document conversion settings.  More information about settings for creating accessible PDFs can be found in the Adobe accessibility authoring guidelines (for example, check for security settings, fonts and book marking), at: www.adobe.com/accessibility/index.html.
  
• After conversion, use the in-built Accessibility Checker to check for possible problems.  If you have one, use a screen reader to check the reading order and to check that all the content is accessible.
  
• When posting PDFs on the web, add a link to Adobe Acrobat reader and a link to the online conversion tools: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_onlinetools.html.

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