How to Make PDFs Accessible: Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them

PDFs are everywhere in business, from reports to training manuals. However, many remain inaccessible, particularly to employees who are blind or have low vision.

In fact, a survey conducted by Equidox with the help of the National Federation of the Blind, found 67% of PDFs were partially or entirely unreadable.

This has to change. 

Inaccessible documents lock out disabled employees and are also a legal risk.

Accessible PDFs mitigate risk, improve the employee experience and make content easier to consume for all users. In this blog, we explore why PDF accessibility matters, common issues encountered and how to fix them.

Contents

• Why Does PDF Accessibility Matter?
• Common PDF Accessibility Issues
• How to Fix Common PDF Accessibility Issues 
• Supporting Employees with Inaccessible PDFs and General Accessibility in the Workplace

Why Does PDF Accessibility Matter?

Legally, many jurisdictions treat PDFs like any other published information: U.S. laws (ADA Title II/III and Section 508) among many other global legislations, require reasonable accommodations in digital content, and courts increasingly apply web standards to document formats. 

Beyond legal risk, accessible PDFs simply make sense for business and culture. 

An accessible PDF ensures that every employee, whether they use access tech, can get the information they need. This creates an inclusive workplace that includes employees with visual, hearing, or cognitive disabilities. 

Additionally, companies that commit to workplace accessibility often see benefits like higher employee engagement and a stronger brand reputation. 

Common PDF Accessibility Issues

Many PDFs fail basic accessibility checks. And, in the same survey mentioned at the start of this article, 72% of respondents said inaccessible PDFs affect their ability to do their job properly.

Here are some of the most frequent problems we see (and how they hinder users):

• Missing Alt Text on Images: Decorative and informative images alike need “alt text” descriptions. Without alt text, screen readers simply skip images, making charts or infographics incomprehensible to blind users.
• No Document Tags/Structure: Accessible PDFs rely on a hidden tag structure that marks up headings, paragraphs, lists, tables and so on. A PDF with no tags is a flat “image” to assistive tech.
• Incorrect Reading Order: Keep tags in the same flow as the visual page, even when you tag the content. If the reading order is wrong, screen readers will read sentences out of sequence or skip content.
• Scanned or Image-Only PDFs: A huge barrier is distributing scans (images) with no hidden text layer. Screen readers cannot read text that’s just a picture, so an image-only PDF is effectively blank to anyone using access technology.
• Missing or Unclear Headings: Headings (H1, H2, etc.) help everyone scan a document quickly. For screen-reader users, heading tags are vital for “skimming.” PDFs that use plain text instead of heading tags force users to listen linearly or guess structure, which is time-consuming and disorienting.
• Poor Color Contrast or Font Choices: Low contrast between text and background (e.g. light gray on white) can be completely illegible for low-vision employees. Similarly, fancy scripts or tiny fonts strain readers.
• Unlabeled Form Fields: Interactive forms in PDFs must have text labels. Screen readers treat unlabeled fields like blanks on a form so the user doesn’t know what information to enter. 

How to Fix Common PDF Accessibility Issues 

Fortunately, many accessibility fixes are straightforward with the right tools. Here are a few practical steps to improve PDF accessibility…

• Add Alt Text to Images: In Microsoft Word (if you’re creating the PDF), right-click the image and choose Edit Alt Text (or go to Picture Format → Alt Text). Write a brief, meaningful description of the image’s content or purpose. If the image is purely decorative, mark it as “Decorative” so assistive tech will skip it.
• Ensure Proper Tags/Structure: Use built-in Styles for headings (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) and body text. Then, when saving as PDF, make sure you enable accessibility tags.
• Fix Reading Order: After tagging, confirm that the order of tags follows the visual page. Adjust the page content numbers if necessary so that screen readers read in the intended sequence.
• OCR Scanned Documents: If your PDF came from scanned pages, run Optical Character Recognition to create selectable text. After OCR, you must still add tags and alt text as above.
• Apply Clear Headings: Set your headings semantically and use Heading styles (as above) or mark headings in your authoring tool.
• Check Color Contrast and Fonts: Use a color contrast analyzer (web tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker are free) to test text/background combinations. Aim for at least 4.5:1 contrast on normal text (WCAG AA).
• Label Form Fields: For any interactive form fields (text boxes, checkboxes, dropdowns), give each a meaningful name and tooltip. Forms are often designed with blank lines or boxes that look like fields intended for users to fill in. However, these visual cues are invisible to screen readers and unusable for blind and low vision users. If a field isn’t an actual, labeled form element, it effectively doesn’t exist from an accessibility standpoint.

Supporting Employees with Inaccessible PDFs and General Accessibility in the Workplace

Even with strong accessibility processes in place, inaccessible documents still slip through – especially older files or third-party PDFs that weren’t created with accessibility in mind. That’s where Be My Eyes Workplace provides an important safety net. 

Workplace Reader, part of the software, allows blind and low vision employees to quickly understand lengthy PDFs by generating clear summaries in seconds. It also provides detailed descriptions of images, charts, graphs, screenshots, and complex layouts, ensuring employees don’t just read the text, but understand the full context of the document.

To further improve accessibility, Be My Eyes Workplace also includes Workplace AI and Workplace Connect.

• Workplace AI: Provides instant, AI-powered descriptions of screens, windows, and clipboard content, from presentations and graphs to chat emojis. 
• Workplace Connect: Enables one-click calls to trusted colleagues or trained agents for support, with the option to securely share screens or grant temporary remote control. 

Learn more about Workplace here.