With the approaching Department of Justice deadline (April 2026), we need to look for resources that guide us to make our content more accessible. If you’ve seen the Ally speedometers in your course, you may have noticed that PDFs are often the least accessible type of content in our courses. Making them accessible can be challenging. This blog post will share a process for approaching PDF documents in our courses.
We should follow two key principles:
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- Whenever possible, provide documents in a format other than PDF.
- Focus on making only the PDFs we own accessible.
These principles serve as a decision tree, helping us minimize the time we spend making PDFs accessible.
Find an Alternative- Especially if You Don’t Own the PDF
Consider these alternatives:
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- Is it available in the library? If so, link to the document in the library databases. The library is actively working with publishers to make sure their content is accessible.
- Is the document a scan of a book that you placed on e-reserve? Make another scan of the document, paying special attention to the alignment or ask the Library to do it for you. The library is very skilled at creating scans of physical books. They can also help you perform an optical character recognition (OCR) on the document, as well. You will need to remediate these documents yourself. Check out the section below: Take PDF Training.
- Is it online in HTML format? If so, link to the HTML page. While not perfect, HTML is inherently more accessible than PDFs. OER (open educational resource) websites are often accessible; however, the accessibility of documents on those sites vary. To have content evaluated for accessibility, contact accessibility@psu.edu.
- Is it from a publisher? e.g., a Harvard Business case. Request an accessible version from the publisher first. If they cannot provide one, the University’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) will support your work to make the document accessible, as accessibility takes precedence over copyright if we have asked for an alternative before making it accessible ourselves.
Go Back to the Source
By now, your list of PDFs should be limited to those you created or manage. To further minimize the need for PDF remediation, consider these questions:
Do you have the original source document? (e.g., from the software that isn’t Adobe.)
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- If yes, edit the original file to improve the accessibility.
- If you need help, contact your local instructional designer or Penn State Accessibility (accessibility@psu.edu).
- Tip: If the document is a PowerPoint, consider converting it to Microsoft Word.
If you don’t have the original source document, you will need to either:
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- Convert the document to another format, or
- Fix the PDF document.
Pull the Content Out
Before fixing the PDF document in Adobe Acrobat, let’s talk through moving the content into another format. (Microsoft Word is a great option.)
Has the PDF gone through optical character recognition (OCR)?
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- Upload the document to Canvas.
- Open the Alternative Formats option from Anthology Ally/
- If OCR PDF is available, the document has NOT gone through optical character recognition. Generate this format and download it.
- Replace the original format in Canvas with the OCR version. (This is still in a PDF format.)
- Once the document has gone through optical character recognition, you can copy and paste the content into another format, such as Word.
Does the document contain handwritten text? Optical character recognition (OCR) struggles with handwriting, but you can convert it using:
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- Google Docs: Upload the PDF to Google Drive. Open with Google Docs.
- Office 365 Dictate: Display the PDF on one screen, open Office 365 Dictate on another, and read the handwriting aloud to convert it to text.
Does the document contain LaTeX, MathML, or scientific equations?
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- Equatio, a free tool for faculty, staff, and students, can extract math content from any document. (Think of it like an OCR tool for math.) Download the tool and use the screenshot tool to convert equations into accessible formats. (This content is still not accessible in PDF format.)
- PDF is not an accessible format for MathML or LaTeX. If you use PDF, provide the content in an alternative format, as well.
Do you prefer to republish your content in PDF format?
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- Yes, a PDF can be opened by anyone on any device. However, alternative formats are more accessible. Consider other options such as a read-only Office 365 document.
- If you must use a PDF, use Save As or Export As. DO NOT use Print to PDF, as it removes accessibility features. All that work for nothing….
- Reminder: PDFs do not support MathML and LaTeX, so provide a Word version alongside the PDF format.
Take PDF Training
If you have reached this step and still need to remediate the PDF, take a deep breath. Before diving in, set aside an hour to complete a training session on PDF accessibility.
Key areas to make a PDF accessible:
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- Tags (similar to heading styles in Word)
- Alt text for images
- Reading order (ensuring content is read in the correct sequence)
- Specialized content (such as complex tables, etc.)
Training Options:
These sessions will equip you with the essential skills to make PDFs accessible.
