Accessibility of PDF Documents

PDFs often require the entire file to load before you can read anything. For people with slow internet connections, this can be frustrating. They may give up before the document even opens.

While PDFs can technically open on phones and tablets, they do not adapt well to small screens. People with low vision cannot zoom in and adjust text flow, making it hard — or impossible — to read or fill out forms.

Many PDFs are just scanned images of paper documents. That means:

• Screen readers cannot read the text
• People with low vision cannot resize or restyle the text for better visibility
• There are no tags on the document, so no way to add alt text or semantic structure for assistive technologies

Without tags for headings, lists, tables, images, and links, assistive technologies cannot navigate or interpret the content properly. Nor can search engines, AI, and other software.

PDFs are designed for print, not for screen reading. Complex layouts can confuse assistive technologies, which may read content out of order, jumping from footers to sidebars to unrelated sections.

Design choices made for print, like light gray text on white backgrounds or decorative fonts, can make content unreadable for people with low vision. Assistive technologies may not even detect the text if contrast is too low.

PDF forms often lack proper labels. Screen reader users cannot tell:

• What information to enter
• What each field is for
• What options are available in checkboxes or radio buttons

Review your websites, blogs, course content, and other digital content:

• Remove PDFs that are no longer relevant — like a 2023 scholarship form or a 2021 exercise class schedule flyer
• Keep archived or retention-required documents, but clearly label them as archived content to avoid confusion

• Start with low-hanging fruit — a PDF that is just text is usually easy to turn into a web page
• TAMU-CC web pages are printer friendly — a PDF is not required in addition to a web page, but a web page can be saved as a PDF by the user, if needed

See examples:

• IT Acceptable Use
• Shift Left: Keeping Accessibility in Mind Early in the Process

Use your browser's "Save as PDF" or "Print to PDF" option to view a printer friendly version of the web page.

For longer documents, consider creating:

1. An index page with a table of contents
2. Separate web pages for each section or chapter

This makes the content easier to navigate, search, reference, and read on any device.

See examples:

• A Guide to Assistive Technology
• Cybersecurity Controls Standards Catalog
• Prohibited Technology and Sensitive Locations

• Work with the IT department on which online form platform is right for your form
• Complete the Electronic Form Request in the Service Portal

We know that making PDFs fully accessible under ADA Title II can be technically complex and sometimes not entirely possible. But even if we cannot fix everything, we can reduce the number of issues in our remaining documents to make them easier for more people to use.

Here are a few meaningful steps you can take:

• Avoid scanned PDFs when possible—use text-based formats instead
  • Use links directly to your library resources for books and journals instead of creating scanned PDF document copies
• Maintain source documents — use these to export accessible documents to PDF
  • Use built-in heading styles, lists, and tables in word processors, spreadsheets, and presentations
  • Use master slides to control reading order on the slides of presentations
  • Add alt text to images, charts, and graphics
  • Make sure PDF export options for tagging are on to preserve structure and reading order
• Run the accessibility checker in Adobe Acrobat Pro or Microsoft apps to catch common issues

Improving accessibility helps everyone, and it reduces the need for individual accommodation requests. Every fix, big or small, makes a difference.