How are tags vital to a PDF?

Adobe Acrobat DC allows for elements of a document to be tagged according to their purpose. These
tags are not displayed in the document, but they are used by screen readers to understand the
structure.

Tagging documents used in online courses allows people with disabilities to access materials as quickly as their classmates!

Tags are bins of information

Tags Panel is divided into tags that can be thought of as bins that contain specific information. A tag can be expanded via the carrot or the arrow next to the tag.

Each tag is unique and helps users who rely on screen readers to identify what an element on a page is. For example, a screen reader can interpret the difference between a table from a heading due to the type of tag.

Tagging an untagged document

Take a deep breath, and be prepared to add tags to untagged elements in a PDF. Although the tutorials may look easy -- (we hope they are easy to understand!) -- tagging a document yourself may take longer than you expected. It may take a lot of effort.

Adobe Acrobat DC was not originally created for Authoring PDF Accessibility

In your PDF Accessibility journey, you may find that the software and tools may not behave in the way you expect them to. This is because authoring for accessibility was an afterthought for Adobe Acrobat DC. Accessibility was not built into the authoring system.

There is better-dedicated software that can remediate PDFs; however, those programs take a significant amount of time and effort to understand. There are devoted positions whose purpose is to remediate documents. It is a life-long journey. There is always more to learn as technology evolves.

Tag away & thank you for creating an inclusive environment!

If it is necessary to have an accessible PDF, continue to the rest of the module!