Making PDFs Accessible: A Guide to 508 Compliance

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At Web Experts, digital accessibility is a key focus in all our work. Creating accessible content ensures people with disabilities can engage with your information. For PDF documents specifically, this means following 508 compliance standards. In this post, we’ll explain what 508 compliance entails for PDF accessibility, why it matters, and steps to make your PDFs compliant. Let’s get started!

What is 508 Compliance?

Section 508 is a federal standard that requires electronic documents be accessible to users with vision, hearing, motor, or cognitive disabilities. It was enacted to ensure those with impairments can access materials comparable to the general public. For a PDF to meet 508 compliance and be considered accessible, it must incorporate features to support assistive technologies people may use. This includes screen readers, text enlargers, Braille displays, and more. There are specific PDF accessibility criteria defined under 508 compliance. By meeting these standards, you make your PDFs usable for everyone.

Why Follow 508 Standards for PDFs?

There are both ethical and legal motivations for making PDFs 508 compliant:

• It’s the right thing to do – everyone deserves access to information, regardless of ability. Accessibility supports inclusion.
• Federal regulations mandate accessibility for government agencies, contractors, and more under Section 508. There can be legal risks with inaccessible PDFs.
• You avoid excluding or alienating people with disabilities from engaging with your content.

Ultimately, accessible PDFs lead to more equal access to information and opportunities. It also makes business sense by reaching a wider audience.

How to Make PDFs 508 Compliant

Creating accessible PDFs compliant with 508 involves both document creation best practices and post-creation remediation:

Things To Consider During Authoring When Making A PDF 508 Compliant:

• Semantic Structure –  When authoring a PDF document, use proper heading tags to establish a semantic hierarchical structure. Headings allow assistive technologies like screen readers to understand the organization of content and navigation. Tag all headings, subheadings, sections, and article titles appropriately.
  • Example: Start with the main title of the document as ‘Heading 1’. Subsequent section titles should be ‘Heading 2’, and if those sections have subsections, use ‘Heading 3’, and so on.
  • Implementation: In Adobe Acrobat, use the ‘Tags’ panel to properly tag each heading. Ensure that the hierarchy is correct, with ‘Heading 1’ at the top followed by lower-level headings.
• Alternative Text – Include descriptive alternative text for every image in the PDF. The alt text should briefly convey the purpose or meaning of each image. Proper tags allow the alt text to be read by screen readers. Without alt text, readers with visual impairments cannot determine what images contain.
  • Example: For a chart image, the alt text could be “Bar chart showing sales increase from 2010 to 2020”.
  • Implementation: In the PDF, right-click on the image, select ‘Properties’, and then enter the descriptive text in the ‘Alternative Text’ field. This text should convey the essence of the image.
• Document Metadata – Supply key document metadata when authoring the PDF, including the document title, language, tags, and tab order metadata specifying a logical reading order. This supplementary information aids navigation and context when making a document 508 compliant.
  • Example: Include the title of the document, author’s name, subject, and language (e.g., English).
  • Implementation: In Adobe Acrobat, go to ‘File’, then ‘Properties’, and fill in the ‘Title’, ‘Author’, ‘Subject’, and ‘Language’ fields under the ‘Description’ tab. Also, ensure the correct reading order in the ‘Reading Order’ tool.
• Color Contrast – Carefully ensure there is sufficient color contrast between text and background colors for optimal readability. Certain color combos that look nice visually may be difficult to decipher for those with low vision or color blindness. Check contrast ratios.
  • Example: Use black text on a white background or vice versa to ensure high contrast. Avoid using light grey text on a white background.
  • Implementation: Use online tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker to test the contrast ratio of your color choices. Aim for a ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text.
• Accessible Elements – When adding links, data tables, lists, forms, or other common elements, ensure they meet accessibility standards. Links should be meaningful and tables logically structured.
  • Example: Hyperlinks should have descriptive text rather than just ‘click here’. Data tables should have a clear header row.
  • Implementation: For links, use descriptive phrases that indicate the link’s destination. In tables, use the ‘Table Editor’ in Acrobat to tag and label header rows and cells correctly. Forms should be tagged properly so that form fields are identified and accessible.
• Language Settings – Confirm the PDF language is set correctly to aid screen readers. This ensures pronunciations and grammar are contextually accurate.
  • Example: The PDF language should be set properly to match the document’s content language.
  • Implementation: Use Acrobat’s document properties to confirm the language is correctly set as English, Spanish, French, etc. This ensures screen readers apply proper pronunciation and grammar rules in context.

Post-Setting Checklist When Making A PDF 508 Compliant:

• Accessibility Check – After PDF creation, run a full accessibility check using Adobe Acrobat’s built-in tools. This identifies any elements that need remediation. Always verify compliance.
• Manual Verification –  One of the most important steps is to manually validate the PDF by running it through an actual screen reader like JAWS or NVDA to ensure everything works correctly. The human test is key.
• Tagging and Structure –  If the accessibility check finds issues, go back and add any missing tags, document structure, alt text, metadata, etc. needed to achieve compliance.
• Reading Order and Navigation – Carefully validate that the defined reading order and built-in navigation tools like bookmarks properly follow logical content flow for usability.

Final Thoughts

The benefits of making a PDF 508 accessible are clear – it adheres to legal and ethical obligations while promoting inclusivity by removing barriers for those with disabilities. When you commit to making a PDF 508 compliant, individuals with impairments can more effectively access and engage with your content.

This leads to more equal access to information and opportunities. There are also advantages for your business by reaching a wider audience. By making a PDF 508 compliant, you show a dedication to accessibility and inclusion.

At Web Experts, our team has extensive expertise in making a PDF 508 compliant along with remediating existing PDFs. We incorporate accessibility practices into every stage of development and can audit documents to identify needs. If you need guidance or help with making a PDF 508 compliant, we are here to partner with you in serving audiences of all abilities.