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Instructions
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7.1: The PDF Form Pipeline
The following steps are the main PDF Form Pipeline or workflow used for creating accessible PDF forms.
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If you start with a tagged PDF document, you should delete the tags and then complete Steps 3 through 8. |
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7.2: Starting in Microsoft Word
When you think your document is nearing completion, follow these rules to make sure your project is ready for Acrobat.
Ensure form instructions are clear.
Create visible labels for all form fields.
Ensure labels are meaningful and clear.
Place labels visually adjacent to their corresponding elements.
Include meaningful group labels where appropriate.
Indicate which form fields are required and if there are any field constraints, such as a specific format of entering the data. (This can also be done in Acrobat).
Provide help and hints where appropriate. (This can also be done in Acrobat).
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7.3: Saving as a Tagged PDF
When you optimize a source document for accessibility and convert it to tagged PDF, you are using a type of automated tagging. Because you've already applied accessibility features in the source document, they will carry over during conversion. This type of automatic tagging is good and will make your life easier.
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Click on the File Tab and click Save as Adobe PDF.
In the Save As box, go to the Options Box at the bottom.
In the Acrobat PDFMaker, check Enable Accessibility and Reflow with tagged Adobe PDF and Convert Word Headings to Bookmarks.
If you want to tag the objects in the Tags Pane yourself, click on the Tags Root and click Delete Tags.
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7.4: Automatically Adding Form Fields
After your document has been imported into Acrobat, we need to create the form fields. Form fields are like text boxes and allow you to enter your information. There are two ways to add your forms, automatically and manually. To add your form fields automatically, you need to get the Prepare Form Tool. To activate this tool,
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Click the Prepare Form Tool.
Select your untagged PDF. Leave the option for This Document Requires Signatures unchecked. We will add a signature line ourselves later on.
The option for Form Field Auto Detection should be left as on.
Click Start
Now your tool has added form fields to your entire PDF document. Field Names and Tooltips are also added, but you should check those to be sure they are accurate.
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7.5: Editing and Swapping Form Fields
Now that your form fields have been created, you need to check them all. Some fields could have been made that are not meant for their space. Others spaces may need different types of fields. A few could also have the wrong names. Be sure you check each one carefully and change them accordingly. The Prepare Form Tool gives you 10 different form types to create. These include,
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You need to create your own Validation Script. You can do this by going to the Text Field Properties Box.
Go to the Validate Tab, check Run Custom Validation Script, then click the Edit Button.
In the JavaScript Editor, type in your JavaScript.
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7.6: Tab Order
Now that all of your form fields have been completed, you need to test the tab order of your PDF. A user may not be able to use the mouse to click from one form field to another. A good alternative to access the form fields is by using the Tab Key. To test your PDF, click the Preview Button and hit the Tab Key several times. What should happen is that the first form field at the top of the PDF should be highlighted first. Then by clicking the Tab Key again, the form next to or underneath the first form field will be highlighted. If a form field is skipped, that means the Tab Order is out of order. To fix the Tab Order,
Go into the Prepare Form Tool Edit Mode.
On the right side of the screen, go to the Fields Section.
The Fields Section contains all of your form fields and gives you the ability to rearrange the order of the form fields. To move the form field order, click and drag the field you want into a new position.
Go back to Preview Mode and press the Tab Key to test the new location of your form fields.
Keep tweaking the Fields Section until everything is in order.
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7.7: Tagging
When your PDF Tab Order is finished, it is time to tag your PDF. Tagging your form is a very long and repetitive process, but it does get easier and faster with time and practice. To tag your form field,
First, we need to create a Tags Root. Right now, we do not have one in our PDF sample. To create one, go to the Tags pane and right click on the No Tags Available text. Click Create Tags Root.
Next, go to the Options Menu and click Find.
In the Find Element box, go to the Find dropdown menu and choose Unmarked Annotations. Then check Search Document and click the Find button.
The first form field in your document should be highlighted. When you see this, click the Tag Element button.
The New Tag box will appear. In the Type dropdown menu, choose Form and click OK.
In the Tags Pane, you will see a Form Tag has been created and within it is an OBJR Tag with your form field inside it.
Go back to the Find Element box and repeat these steps until every single form field has been tagged.
Once everything has been tagged, we are going to tag our text for each form field. Start by creating a paragraph tag and placing each text inside. In this case, remember to only highlight the words and the colon. We will take care of the lines later.
Drag and drop all of the Form tags and OBJR tags into their respective Paragraph tags.
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7.8: Tagging Other Objects
Chapter 4 in this series has examples of how to tag most objects found in PDF documents. This section will explain what each item should be tagged as in the current situation. Feel free to apply these methods into your project if it will help your project become more accessible. But keep in mind that every project is different, so what may work in one project may not be best for another.
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Go to the Options Menu and click Find.
In the Find Element dropdown menu click on Unmarked Content, check Search Document and click Find.
A bunch of pink boxes will appear around your document. Click Tag Element. Keep clicking Tag Element until you have everything tagged.
Place all of the tagged content into its own Paragraph Tag. Be careful, you may get some important content in the tag, so be sure to move that content to its own tag for the screen reader to read.
Highlight all of the items in your Paragraph Tag and then right click. In the menu, click Change to Artifact. Now the screen reader will skip those objects when reading to the reader. Then delete your Paragraph tag.
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7.9: Accessibility Checker
You have now reached the last step of our process before testing with a screen reader. We need to use Adobe’s Accessibility Checker. The accessibility checker will scan our entire document, from the tags, to the font used, to the color contrast, and many other accessibility attributes. After it is done checking, the accessibility checker will give us a notification on what issues need to be fixed and what fulfills accessibility requirements. Keep in mind though, that while accessibility checkers are very good, they should not be completely depended on. Think of them as a first step for testing accessibility. If you want to see if your document is completely accessible, it is recommended to test it with a screen reader. To use Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker,
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Click on the upload button and select your PDF.
PAC 2021 will analyze your document and see if it passes WCAG 2.1 standards as well as PDF/UA Standards. For these examples we only need to worry about WCAG 2.1 standards and any new WCAG standards as they are released.
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7.10: Testing with a Screen Reader
Use NVDA or another screen reader to test your PDF. Everything in your PDF should be read by the screen reader in order. If anything is skipped, be sure to fix the reading order or tab order or any additional issues you may run into. Once you are done, the PDF should be fully accessible, and you can share it with your student, or other faculty that need it.
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