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Part 3: Tagging your Application

Part 3: Tagging your Application

 Instructions

Step 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. We have to tag our objects in this order.

  1. The Form Fields - When tagged they should have OBJR tags inside of Form Tags.

  2. The Title, then the Employment/Job Application Text, and the All Fields are Required) text.

  3. The sections text like Personal Information, and Education.

  4. The text next to the form fields and the Page Numbers.

  5. The Unmarked Content, this includes lines and blank spaces between rows of content.

Chapter 4 and Chapter 7 in this series has examples of how to tag most objects found in PDF documents and forms. 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.

Object

Tag to Use

Object

Tag to Use

The Full PDF

Document Tag

Coastal Comforts Title

Heading Tag

Employment/Job Application

Heading 1 Tag

(All fields are required)

Paragraph Tag

Personal Information, Education, Previous Employment, References, Disclaimer

Heading 2 Tag

Disclaimer Text

Paragraph Tag

Page Numbers

Paragraph Tag

Step 8: 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. When you have all of the issues fixed in Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker, feel free to double check it using PAC 2021 and compare the results.

Step 9: 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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