How to make PDFs accessible
Notes
Notes are usually short bits of text at the end of a section, page or document. For example, a footnote or endnote.
Notes typically have a small number, letter or symbol next to them. This is also shown next to the text they relate to.
Notes usually explain things like:
- What a word or phrase means
- Where specific data or information comes from (its source)
- Where to find more information about a specific topic
A note can be a good way to share extra information. People can decide whether to read it or just focus on the main information in your document.
How to check note accessibility
Symbols
Make sure any notes in your PDF don't use symbols, like asterisks (*). They should use numbers or letters instead.
This is because some assistive technology, like screen readers, may not recognise and read out some symbols. This means some users might miss notes or not understand what they relate to.
Footnotes and endnotes
You must check that any footnotes or endnotes in your PDF are formatted correctly. They must have reference and note tags correctly applied.
To check the tags in your PDF:
- Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro
- Open the 'Accessibility tags' panel. You can use the search tool in Acrobat to help you find it.
- Highlight the PDF text you want to check
- Select the 'Options' (three dots) button within the accessibility tags panel and select 'Find tag from selection'. This will highlight the tag applied to the PDF text in the accessibility tags panel.
Use this process to check that:
- All references (the small number or letter in the main page text) are inside a 'Reference' tag.
- If a reference is hyperlinked, there is a 'Link' tag inside the 'Reference' tag. The reference text and a 'Link-OBJR' tag are inside the 'Link' tag.
- Each note (the text at the end of the section, page or document) is inside a 'Note' tag. The 'Note' tag is directly after the 'Reference' tag it relates to.
Manual notes
If your PDF includes any notes that aren't footnote or endnotes, the text must make it clear:
- What text is a note
- Which text the note relates to
For example:
- The note could begin with the word 'note' and a number or letter. For example, 'Note 1'
- Any text that has a note, could have '(see note)' after it and reference the number or letter of the note. For example, '(see note 1)'
Descriptive link text
If any notes in your PDF include links, they must follow our links advice.
How to make notes accessible
If you find that any notes in your PDF aren't accessible, you must fix them.
Edit the source document
Most PDFs on our websites were created in Word originally.
The easiest way to make the notes in your PDF accessible is to edit the source (Word) document, then reconvert it to a PDF.
If you need to go back to your original Word document, read our guide on notes in Word. You may find our Word accessibility advice useful even if you used a different application to create your PDF.
Edit the PDF
You need Adobe Acrobat Pro to edit your PDF. You should only edit the PDF if you can't edit the source document. This is because:
- It's usually easier to edit the source document than the PDF
- Your PDF may have other accessibility issues that you can only fix in the source document
- If you edit the PDF but then update your source document in the future, you will need to redo all the edits you made to the original PDF.
