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Accessibility

Check Accessibility with Full Check

Use the Full Check command to check whether a PDF is compliant with accessibility standards of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. You can choose which kinds of accessibility items to check for and how to view the results.

To check accessibility with the Full Check command, please do as below:

Full Check Results and Accessibility Report

View Full Check Results and Accessibility Report

You can view the full check results and accessibility reports in the following ways:

Note: Because some content types are difficult to be distinguished clearly by the checker, some issues reported may not affect readability. It would be better to review all issues to definitely decide which ones are not accessible.

About the Accessibility Report

The report includes the name of the PDF document, Summary of the result, and Detailed Report for each checking option.

Summary lists one of the following statuses for each item check:

Detailed Report clearly lists the rule name, status, and description for each checking option. You can click the links in the report to view the online Help. For more details, please refer to "Accessibility Issues".

Accessibility Issues

The following part on accessibility issues provides explanations and instructions to help you better understand each accessibility rule and easily make a decision on how to deal with the accessibility problems in your document.

Document

Accessibility permission flag

Some documents may be protected by the document authors and no content can be copied, printed, extracted, annotated, or edited. This permission setting could interfere with a screen reader's ability to read the documents because screen readers need to copy or extract the documents' text to convert it to speech.

The flag reports whether the setting is turned off to allow accessibility. If your document failed to pass the rule, you can remove the permission setting to fix the issue manually by choosing Protect > Remove Security if you have the permission.

Image-only PDF

The rule check reports whether the document is an image-only PDF with non-text content that is not accessible. You can use the OCR tools in the Convert toolbars to recognize text in images to fix the rule check manually.

Tagged PDF

This rule check reports whether the document is a PDF with tags to specify the reading order, which is important for an accessible PDF. If the check failed, right-click the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane, and choose Fix from the context menu. Or re-create the PDF from a file that has been tagged in the authoring application.

Logical Reading Order

Check the rule manually to make sure that the reading order is in accordance with the logical reading order.

Primary language

Some screen readers read the text in the language specified for the document. This rule checks whether the primary text language for the document is specified. You can set the language by right-clicking the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane and choosing Fix from the context menu, then choose a language in the Set Reading Language dialog box.

Title

This rule is to check whether the document contains a title in its document properties. If the check failed, right-click the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane, choose Fix from the context menu, uncheck Leave as is and enter the document title in the Description dialog box.

Bookmarks

If the document contains 21 or more pages, but doesn't have bookmarks that correspond to the document structure, this rule check will fail.

Color contrast

The check may fail if the document contains content that isn't accessible to people who are color-blind. To fix the issue, ensure that the document's content conforms to the guidelines in WCAG section 1.4.3.

Page Content

Tagged content

The rule check reports whether all content in the document is tagged or marked as an artifact.

Artifacts are graphics objects that are typically not part of the author's original content but rather are generated by the PDF producer application in the course of pagination, layout, or other strictly mechanical processes. Artifacts are not read by a screen reader. Page numbers, headers, and footers are often tagged as artifacts.

Tagged annotations

The check reports whether all annotations in the document are tagged or marked as an artifact.

Tab order

The check reports whether the tab order parallels the document structure. To fix the issue automatically, right-click the rule in the Accessibility Check panel in the navigation pane and choose Fix from the context menu. You can also click the Pages panel in the navigation pane, right-click the pages that failed in the rule check, choose Properties and select Use Document Structure in the Tab Order tab to set the tab order manually.

Character encoding

A correct character encoding is required to display readable text in software/hardware. To fix the issue, you need to check whether the necessary fonts have been installed on your system or re-create the PDF from a file that uses a proper font (preferably OpenType).

Tagged multimedia

Checks whether all multimedia objects in the document are tagged or marked as an artifact.

Screen flicker

Document content, like animations and scripts that can make the screen flicker, is not accessible for people who have photosensitive epilepsy and can be difficult to see when the screen is magnified. To fix the issue, you need to remove or modify the content that can make the screen flicker.

Scripts

If the document contains scripts, the scripting shouldn't interfere with keyboard navigation or prevent the use of any input device. To fix the issue, you need to remove or modify the script or content that doesn't meet the accessibility rule.

Timed responses

If the document contains forms with JavaScript that requires timed response, the check fails. To fix the issue, edit the scripts to give users enough time to read and use the content, or remove the scripts.

Navigation links

The check reports whether the URLs in the document are active links that are correctly tagged. To fix the issue, check navigation links manually and make sure that the content doesn't have too many identical links.

Forms

Tagged form fields

The rule check reports whether all form fields in the document are tagged. If the rule check passes, you can also use the Tooltip in a form field’s properties to provide users with more information.

Field descriptions

The check reports whether all form fields have a text description in the document. All form fields need a text description for an accessible PDF.You can add a text description (tooltip) to a form field in its properties. For detailed information, please refer to “Add Tooltips to Form Fields”.

Alternate Text

Figures alternate text

For accessibility, images in the document either have alternate text, or are marked as artifacts.

Nested alternate text

The check fails if the document contains nested alternate text that screen readers don't read.

Associated with content

Alternate text is always associated with the corresponding content on the page. If not, there's no way to determine which page the alternate text is on.

Hides annotation

The rule checks whether there is any annotation in the document is hidden by alternate text. For an annotation that is nested under a parent element with alternate text, screen readers don't see it.

Other elements alternate text

The content except figures like multimedia, annotations, and 3D models, also requires alternate text for accessibility. And make sure alternate text is always associated with the corresponding content on the page. See also Associated with content.

Tables

For the table structure, which can be complex, Foxit PhantomPDF Mac recommends that users check them for accessibility manually.

Rows

This rule checks whether each Table Row in a table is a child of Table, THead, TBody, or TFoot.

TH and TD

For accessibility, Table Header and Table Data are children of Table Row .

Headers

For accessibility, all tables must have a header.

Regularity

Tables must contain the same number of columns in each row, and rows in each column.

Summary

A table summary is not a must, but it can make the document more accessible.

Lists

List items

The rule check reports whether the list structure in the document is correct. Lists must have the following structure: A list element must contain list item elements; a list item element may have a label element (optional) and a list item body element (required).

Lbl and LBody

See also List items.

Headings

Appropriate nesting

The check reports whether headings are nested properly.