Create an Accessible PDF

Scanning Accessible PDF Docs

At Evergreen, we distribute a lot of instructional material in the form PDF documents. Unfortunately, it’s easy to create PDF documents that are not accessible for our visually impaired students. The following instructions provide a means of creating accessible PDF documents using a scanner.

This process assumes that you are using Adobe Acrobat Pro v9 on Windows and that you have a scanner connected to your computer.

• Turn on your scanner.
• Place document on scanner.
• Start AdobeAcrobat9Pro
• If the Tasks toolbar is not visible, select it from View->Toolbars->Tasks
• If you want to change the scanning defaults, choose Create->PDF from Scanner->Configure Presets
• Click Create->PDF from Scanner->(Document Type, most often Black and White Document) Scanner should begin scanning
• You may be prompted for your scanner type at this point. The scanner type is usally on the front of the scanner.
  You’ll be prompted whether your Scan is Complete or if there are additional pages.
• Place the additional page on the scanner before choosing an option, because the scanner will immediately begin scanning.
• When you’re scanning is complete, select File-> Save. Accessibility checking will not work correctly otherwise,
  Select Advanced ->Acccessibility-> Full Check
• If there are accessibility problems, they will be reported in the left sidebar. They are accompanied by detailed step-by-step instructions for fixing each problem.
• To be absolutely certain that the PDF document will be accessible for a specifc application, testing the PDF document with that application (typically JAWS or ZoomText) is recommended.