Accessible PDFs: create, check and fix
For staff who publish or send PDFs: reports, forms, leaflets and policies. Prerequisite: the course on accessible documents, emails and meetings (or know how to use heading styles and alt text in Word). You learn what makes a PDF accessible, how to create a tagged PDF from Word, how to check it with an automated checker plus manual checks, and how to fix common problems in Adobe Acrobat Pro. The checklist follows US federal Section508.gov guidance and W3C WCAG 2.2 PDF techniques; your organization's policy and local accessibility law decide what you must meet. This course is not legal advice.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 85 minutes
- Contents
- 4 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Identify the properties and structure a PDF needs to be accessible (real text, tags, reading order, title, language) and choose alternative text or an artifact for each image
- Create a tagged PDF from Word with the settings that keep document structure
- Run an automated accessibility check and carry out the manual checks it cannot complete
- Fix common problems in Acrobat: missing title or language, wrong heading or table tags, decorative images, reading order
Course outline
- 1.What an accessible PDF containsLesson · 16 min
- 2.Create it right in WordLesson · 14 min
- 3.Run an automated accessibility check, then the manual checksLesson · 17 min
- 4.Fix common problems in AcrobatLesson · 18 min
- 5.Accessible PDFs: create, check and fix: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 14 questions
- 6.Accessible PDFs: create, check and fix: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 7.Final exam8 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- Section508.gov (U.S. GSA): Create accessible PDFs
- Section508.gov: PDF tags and usage
- Section508.gov / AED COP: How to Create, Test and Remediate PDFs for Section 508 Conformance Using Adobe Acrobat DC Pro (Word document)
- W3C WAI: PDF1, Applying text alternatives to images with the Alt entry in PDF documents
- W3C WAI: PDF3, Ensuring correct tab and reading order in PDF documents
- W3C WAI: PDF4, Hiding decorative images with the Artifact tag in PDF documents
- W3C WAI: PDF6, Using table elements for table markup in PDF documents
- W3C WAI: PDF9, Providing headings by marking content with heading tags in PDF documents
- W3C WAI: PDF16, Setting the default language using the /Lang entry in PDF documents
- W3C WAI: PDF18, Specifying the document title using the Title entry in PDF documents
- Microsoft Support: Create accessible PDFs (saving from Word with document structure tags)
- Microsoft Support: Improve accessibility with the Accessibility Checker
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.