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PDF accessibility scan

Introduction

How to do a PDF accessibility scan and request a PDF remediation. PDF scans are done through a Remediation Quote. Order a list of issues that require attention in the PDF. This service is provided by a third-party provider, CommonLook Clarity:

CommonLook Clarity | PDF Accessibility and Compliance

Choose the type of PDF scan:

  1. Scan a PDF file (also known as a “clarity” scan).
  2. Request PDF file remediation.

Include PDF files in the scan

This section gives information on how to request a PDF accessibility scan.

  1. Navigate to your domain dashboard.

  2. On the top menu bar, click Accessibility (icon of a human figure with outstretched arms).

  3. The Accessibility summary page opens.

  4. Click PDFs from the menu on the left side of the page.
  6. The list expands with more choices:
    • Internal PDFs: Select this option if the PDF file is uploaded on your site.

    • The Internal PDFs page opens.

      The chart has the following sorting options:

      • Pending
      • Reviewed/OK
      • Queued
      • Failed.

    • External PDFs: Select this option if the PDF file is not on your site.

      The External PDFs page opens.
      The list shows all external PDF files that you need to check for accessibility issues. The chart gives a graphic view of:

      • PDF files reviewed
      • PDF files pending.
  7. Action: Click to expand the list of options.

  8. Select Start PDF Accessibility scan: Select to scan this PDF.

    The PDF file moves into the Queued column.

    If the PDF is located externally, select External PDFs: The External PDFs page opens. The chart has the following sorting options:

    • Pending
    • Reviewed/OK.
  9. Click a PDF in the list to view the URL and scan information.

The scan results are imported directly into your account and are available through the Acquia Optimize dashboard.

If the scan is successful and no accessibility errors are found, the PDF is automatically moved to the Reviewed/OK column. Select the PDF to view the results.

If the scan is successful and some accessibility errors are found, the PDF is automatically moved to the Failed column. Click to view the scan results and the issues detected. Repair the errors or use the PDF remediation option as described below in the Remediation Quote instructions, upload the new PDF documents, and then start a new scan.

Here is an example of how the scan report can look:

  • Columns are:
    • Name: The name of the error. In this example, the first row is "Alternative Representat.." (truncated).
    • Result_type: The type of error. In this example, the first row is "error".
    • Page_number: The page that the error is on. In this example, the first row is "1".
    • Element_tree_path: How to locate this error directly in the tree path for the report. In this example, the first row is "Annotations->11".
    • Reason: The reason for the error. In this example, the first row is "Link Annotation doesn't..." (truncated).
    • Clarity_comments: Any comments from the CommonLook/Clarity team. In this example, the first row is empty.

Check the scan results

To find more details about the PDF from the scan results, the Quality Assurance Module can provide some additional details:

Instructions

  1. Navigate to your domain.

  2. Click Quality Assurance (the checkbox icon), on the domain dashboard toolbar.

  3. The Quality Assurance page opens.

  4. Click Content with QA Errors from the menu on the left side of the page.

    The Content with QA Errors page opens.

  5. On the menu bar at the top of the chart, click to navigate to PDF Documents.

  6. Click a document in the list to view more information about the scan results.

    If the scan is successful and no accessibility errors are found, it is automatically moved to the Reviewed/Ok column. Select the PDF to view the results.

    If the scan is successful and some accessibility errors are found, the PDF is automatically moved to the Failed column. Click to view the scan results and the issues detected. Repair the errors or use the PDF remediation option as described below in the Remediation Quote instructions, upload the new PDF documents, and then start a new scan.

Remediation quote

If any PDF files require remediation, this can be requested from within the Acquia Optimize platform. Acquia Optimize delivers the remediated documents and accessibility reports when they are ready. To include the PDF scanning tool, upgrade your account at Acquia Optimize Support

  1. Do an accessibility scan as per the previous section and locate the non-compliant PDF files.

  2. Click to select Remediation Quote on the same row as a non-compliant PDF

    This submits an order for remediation of issues that require attention in the PDF. This service is provided by a third party. A dialog box opens with the following text:

    "Document remediation for compliance to WCAG 2.1 AA, Section 508, HHS or PDF/UA accessibility standards. Document remediation requires manual verification and can range in cost. When you submit PDF documents for remediation, we will review the document and give you a firm, fixed price for the remediation. Upon completion of the work, we will also provide a compliance report. We will let you know if there is any Alternative Text (Alt-Text) required for images that are not self-descriptive or any related additional information needed to remediate the document."

  3. Click OK to confirm.
  4. The remediated PDFs are sent to your email when they are finished.
  5. Remove the old PDFs from the website and upload the remediated PDFs.
  6. Change the status of the PDFs manually to Mark as reviewed. This moves the files to the Reviewed/OK folder in the Acquia Optimize UI.

For more information on the PDF accessibility scan service, see:

Bulk remediation quotes and PDF accessibility checks

For accounts that are upgraded to include the PDF scanning tool, it is possible to do a bulk remediation quote to include all PDFs.

  1. Click Accessibility from the domain dashboard.

  2. Click PDFs from the menu on the left.
  4. Click Internal PDFs from the expanded selection.
  6. Choose one of the following bulk options:
    • Mark all as reviewed: Select this option to mark all PDF files as reviewed.
    • Request PDF accessibility check for all: Select this option to request a PDF accessibility check for all PDF files.
    • Request remediation quote for all: Select this option to request a remediation quote for all PDF files.

Contact Support for more information. PDF tracking allows users to see which files are remediated.

Troubleshooting

This section gives some solutions to issues that may occur with PDF accessibility.

Document is not tagged.

Tagged PDF files have an underlying tag tree that defines the structure of the document. Use PDF tags to identify content as headings, lists, tables, and so on, and to add alt-text to your images. PDF files that are not tagged are not accessible.

Usually, you create tagged PDFs from within an authoring application, such as Adobe FrameMaker®, Adobe InDesign, or Microsoft Word. This way, tags are added more effectively than in Acrobat.

PDFMaker provides conversion settings that let you create tagged PDFs in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.

Here are some other ways that you can put tags on PDF files:

Use Autotagging

This works, but keep in mind that Auto-tagging an untagged PDF document can have unpredictable results. Inspect the tag tree after you use auto-tagging. To add tags to an untagged document with Adobe Acrobat Pro DC:

  1. Open the Accessibility Panel on the Tools tab.
  2. Select Autotag Document.
  3. Inspect the tag tree:
    • Select Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Tags rom the View menu. The tags are shown in descending order.
    • Review the tag tree to make sure that it has proper semantic structure and reading order. Tags may be modified manually, but when you make changes to the tag tree it can become unpredictable.
    • Remember to save often.

Use the Reading Order Tool

This is another way to add tags to an untagged document. Use the Reading Order tool during the manual tagging or remediation process. For more information, see the Adobe Support documentation on using the Reading Order tool for PDFs. To add tags with the Reading Order Tool:

  1. Open the Reading Order Tool from the Accessibility Panel.
  2. Marquee the text.
  3. Apply the appropriate heading structure from the options in the Reading Order dialogue box.

For more information, see the following:

FAQ

This section answers some common questions about Commonlook Clarity accessibility scans.

  • Where is CommonLook Clarity based?
    • They are based in Canada, with offices around the world, including the DC area.
  • Where do they store data?
    • This depends on where the customer is based: EU is on Azure in the EU; all others are on US servers.
      For more information, see the Acquia Optimize sub-processor list for server identification.
  • What happens with the data once they have completed a PDF check?
    • Data is deleted in alignment with Acquia's data retention requirements.
  • Are they ISO compliant? If so, to what level?
    • No.
  • I get the error, "Document is not tagged in PDF accessibility" what does that mean and how do I tag it?
    • See the section above for more information about how to tag a PDF file.
    • In order for the scan to work, you need to tag it. Use Adobe Acrobat to tag the PDF. This will make a significant improvement to the accessibility of the document, giving the document a mechanism to indicate the reading order and to improve navigation, add alternate text for graphics, and enable content reflow for large-type display. Here are some helpful instructions from Adobe on how to tag a PDF.

Additional resources

CommonLook Clarity | PDF Accessibility and Compliance

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