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1

In the document properties, enter NCI CBIIT as the Author. In the Keywords field, enter 508 Compliant as one of your keywords.

2

Specify document language.

1. Select File > Document Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. In the Language list, select English.

3

1. Select all pages in the document.
2. Right-click and then select Page Properties.
3. Select Use Document Structure.

4

Run an accessibility full check using the Adobe PDF option.

1. Select Advanced > Accessibility > Full Check. The Accessibility Full Check dialog box appears.
2. Keep the defaults, which includes the checking option of Adobe PDF.
3. Click Start Checking.

5

Fix any problems reported by the accessibility checker. Documents from Word tend to have more problems than documents from FrameMaker. Documents from Word may need post-processing in Acrobat. Use the accessibility checker report as a troubleshooting guide to narrow down problem areas.

To begin post-processing in Acrobat, select Accessibility > TouchUp Reading Order. In the TouchUp Reading Order dialog box, click Show order panel, then do the following.

• Confirm that each numbered box in the document is properly tagged.
• Add alternate text as needed to figures as needed.
• Remove nonessential content, such as ornamental page borders, from the logical structure tree as needed (files from Word tend to create a lot of nonessential tags that can be deleted in the PDF).
• Note that when you remove the tags (such as by using the Delete Item Structure or Clear Page Structure commands), you cannot undo that action. Save your file often.

6

Once the steps above result in a PDF with no accessibility errors according to Adobe, set the scope of your tables. Adobe does not require you to set the scope but it is one more thing that you can do quickly to prepare your PDFs better for assistive technology.

1. Select Accessibility > TouchUp Reading Order.
2. Scroll to your first table and click the number in its upper-left corner.
3. On the TouchUp Reading Order panel, click Table Editor to select the table.
4. Select the cells that serve as column headers. You can also repeat these steps for cells that serve as row headers, if your table has that type of structure.
5. Right-click and select Table Cell Properties.
6. Keep the Type as Header Cell and from the Scope list, select Column. This tells a screen reader that it is to associate column headers with the cells in that column.
7. Click OK.
   

Searchable text

Do not scan documents to create a PDF. This converts all text to an image that a screen reader cannot scan.

Fonts that allow characters to be extracted to text

Make sure we only use fonts that can be extracted to Unicode characters. Use Adobe Acrobat 9 rather than 7, which does not support Unicode.

Interactive form fields

We do not use form fields.

Other interactive features: buttons, hyperlinks, and navigational aids

We already use links, bookmarks, headings, and a TOC, so we are covered here.

We cannot specify the document language from FrameMaker or Word so we must do so in the final PDF. To specify the document language, do the following.

1. Select File > Document Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. In the Language list, select English.

Security that will not interfere with assistive technology

We should not set any security restrictions on our PDF files. We do not currently do so. The text of an accessible PDF must be available to a screen reader.

Document structure tags and proper read order

When we create a tagged PDF, the structure of our source document creates should create the appropriate document structure tags. However, while this may create the proper reading order, it appears that not all elements in our source files result in correctly structured tags. The Acrobat Accessibility Checker identifies these tags and it will be a learning process for all of us how many tags we need to fixdoes not create the proper order for tabbing through the items on a page. Before running the Acrobat Accessibility Checker, instruct Acrobat to use document structure for the tab order.

Alternative text descriptions

We must do this in our source files.