PDF Form Accessibility (DRAFT)

It’s easiest to make accessible PDF forms with Adobe Designer or InDesign. If you have to create forms using Adobe Acrobat, here’s how.

Note: Acrobat has a “new” look and a “classic” look. These instructions are written for the classic look. If you see a “Menu” button in the upper left, open it and pick “Disable new Acrobat” to switch to the classic look.

1. Source – Start with an accessible source document. 
   • Follow the PDF Accessibility Guide to test that your source document is accessible. If it’s not, follow the applicable Accessibility Guide to fix it before you start adding form fields.
2. Settings – Accessibility Tags, Tag Annotations, and (don't) Automatically Detect Form Fields. 
   • Open the View menu > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Accessibility tags.
   • Right click the first element inside the Tags tree, usually, “Document” or “Article”. In the pop-up menu, make sure “Tag Annotations” is checked. 
   • Open the Edit menu > Preferences > Forms > uncheck “Automatically detect Form fields” and click OK. (If you leave autodetection on, you will need to move all the form OBJR elements to the right places in the tag tree.) 
3. Prepare Form
   • Open the View menu > Show/Hide > Tools Pane.
   • In the Tools Pane > More Tools > Forms & Signatures > Prepare Form. 
   • On the “To begin select a file…” screen, click the Start button. 
4. Tags – First, select the tag that will contain the form field.
   • In the Accessibility Tags pane, use the up and down arrow keys to move through the tags, watching as they are highlighted in the document.
   • Press right arrow to expand a collapsed tag and see its contents.
   • Select the tag that contains the label for the form field; it will probably be a <P> (paragraph), <TD> (table data cell), or <LBody> (list item body).
5. Form Fields & Tooltips – Then, add each form field and tooltip.
   • In the Prepare Form toolbar, select the type of field to add (e.g., Text field).
   • In the document, click where you want the field to go.
   • Click "All Properties".
   • Enter a Name – this is a behind-the-scenes name only you will see; it shouldn’t contain spaces (e.g., ShippingAddress).
   • Enter a Tooltip – this is what screen readers will read; it should match the label(s) near the field (e.g., Shipping Address).
   • Set any other properties as desired. (Tip: set properties like border, font, and height on the first field, and then copy and paste, being sure to select the tag before you paste.)
   • Click Close.
   • Check your work: Expand the selected tag in the Accessibility Tags pane – you should see a form OBJR (object reference) after the text of the label.
   • Repeat steps 4 & 5 for each field.
6. Radio Buttons – Add group tooltips for radio buttons.
   • Enter the value of each radio button (e.g., Standard, Second-day, Overnight) as the Radio Button Choice on the Properties > Options tab.
   • Enter the group label or “question” (e.g., Shipping Method) as the Tooltip.
7. Test – Check your work.
   • Follow the steps for Testing PDF Forms in the PDF Accessibility Guide

PDF Tags are like HTML: <H1> represents a main heading, <P> represents a paragraph, <L> represents a list, <FIGURE> represents an image, etc. Tags control how assistive technologies read the PDF, which makes them both powerful and dangerous. We usually recommend against working with tags directly, but there’s no way to avoid it when making forms in Acrobat. If you’re not sure about what you are doing, ask for help. And, be sure to save your document early and often in case something goes wrong and you need to back up.

• Section 508: Common PDF Tags and their Usage
• Mass.gov: PDF Form Accessibility
• WebAIM: Accessible Forms in Acrobat

Try to create PDF Form Example (pdf) by following the Quick Tips above.

To download the exercise documents, right click a link below and pick "Save link as", then pick a location like your Desktop, and click Save:

• PDF Form Exercise (docx)
• PDF Form Exercise (pdf)