Overview

This lesson addresses how to use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to evaluate the accessibility of a PDF.

Core Concepts

Accessibility Check

Under the Accessibility Tool in Acrobat, you can run a full check on your document in order to see what errors/issues Acrobat flags. The finished report will help you identify potential issues and, in some cases, will help you to fix issues from the report itself. To run the checker, follow the steps below.

Go to and select Tools in the Acrobat menu.
Scroll down to Accessibility (or type accessibility in the tool search bar).
Select Accessibility - the Accessibility Tool pane should open on the right side of the window.
Select Full Check. Make sure the document format is selected if you are checking a standard text document. Make sure all of the accessibility features are selected for a thorough check.
Once the check has been completed, you will see if particular components were flagged with issues in the Accessibility Checker navigation pane. Expand these areas to drill down to the flagged components. Right click to learn more about the issue or fix the problem.

screen cast showing how to run the accessibility checker in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

Video Supplements

Checking PDF for Accessibility (9 min)

This is a short video demonstrating how to use Adobe Acrobat Pro to check a PDF for accessibility.

Checking PDF for Accessibility

Additional Resources

Create and verify PDF accessibility (Acrobat Pro) - short tutorial by Adobe on checking accessibility.
UW Checking PDFs for Accessibility - a checklist for determining PDF accessibility
Top 10 PDF Accessibility Errors and How to Fix Them - a 1 hour training from the Accessibility Unraveled team (Dax and Chad) recorded in 2020

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