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Tags are invisible markers that carry essential information about elements within a document. They are crucial for assistive technologies like screen readers, which rely on this information to interpret and convey the content. For instance, a screen reader needs to know whether an element is a plain text paragraph, an image, or a table—and it table. Screen readers cannot determine this unless the element is explicitly tagged.
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Tagging a PDF is arguably the most critical step in ensuring its accessibility. If you are familiar with HTML, PDF tagging will feel familiar since the principles are similar. If you are new to this, a bit of practice will help you become comfortable with the process.
Types of Tags in Acrobat:
Article
Annotation
Bibliography
Block Quote
Caption
Code
Division
Document
Figure
Form
Formula
Heading
Heading Level 1-6
Index
Label
Link
List
List Item
List Item Body
Note
Paragraph
Part
Quote
Reference
Section
Span
Table
Table Data Cell
Table Header Cell
Table of Contents
Table of Contents Item
Table Row
Section 1.2: Remediation Flow in PDF Documents
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Add metadata.
For very simple documents, use Acrobat Pro to autogenerate auto generate tags.
For more complex documents, manually create the tags.
Refine and adjust the tags as needed.
Optimize the reading order and tab order.
Evaluate the accessibility of your work.
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Scan the document, if needed.
Use optical character recognition (OCR) to generate searchable text.
Proceed with the steps for working with an untagged PDF.
Section 1.3: PDF Accessibility Standards
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Yes, WCAG applies to PDFs, even though it only mentions them briefly: "Some common examples of web content technologies include HTML, CSS, SVG, PNG, PDF, Flash, and JavaScript." When you share a PDF on a website, it becomes web content, so WCAG standards apply. However, WCAG is primarily designed for websites, not documents, which . This can make it challenging for authors to interpret and apply these guidelines to PDFs. |
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The W3C Working Group has provided techniques for meeting WCAG using different technologies, including PDF. It's important to note that these techniques are informative, meaning . This means they offer guidance, but they are not normative, so they don’t . They do not establish mandatory requirements for WCAG compliance. To learn more, visit the Techniques for WCAG 2.2. |
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