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Students Affected: 
Principles: Provide Meaningful Alternatives, Follow Web Standards
What It Means
Older PDF files (created before Acrobat 5) are likely to present accessibility challenges. While recent changes improve the accessibility of Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader, you should always provide an alternate 
HTML version for students who cannot access PDF content.
If You Do It Wrong: Students who use assistive technologies may not be able to access PDF content. Even PDFs that include Acrobat accessibility features may not be completely accessible to students who use screen readers. Students without the most recent Acrobat Reader software cannot take advantage of accessibility tagging.
If You Do It Right: Those who need to can access an alternate HTML version of the content.
How It Works
There are three main ways to create HTML versions of PDF files:
- Use the Adobe PDF Conversion tool to automatically generate an HTML version of a PDF file.
- Use the Save as HTML feature in the program (Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign, Adobe PageMaker) you used to generate the file. Add alternative text if your file includes images.
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Some word processing programs may not generate accessible HTML Check the file to be sure it follows the guidelines in the How To: Web Pages section of this Web site. |
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- Cut and paste the content into a basic text Web page (make sure you follow the guidelines in the How To: Web Pages section of this Web site). Add alternative text if your file includes images.
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