Accessibility checks for PDFs are organized into two categories: Failed Issues and Needs Manual Review.
This article focuses on the checks included in the Needs Manual Review category.
Automatic testing can only check for the presence of certain items in the PDF. It can't evaluate their content, meaning, or the document's logical flow. A person needs to review these items to determine whether there is a problem.
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Checks Covered in this Article
Vague visible link text should provide additional link text for screen reader users by using an Alt entry for the Link tag.
Vague visible link text should provide additional link text for screen reader users by using an Alt entry for the Link tag.
When information beyond the visible link text is needed, replacement link text should be provided via the /Alt entry in the property list for a tag. Screen readers can read visible link text, but providing meaningful alternate text for links in a PDF can make them more accessible. Replacement link text should be provided via the /Alt entry in the property list for a tag.
WCAG Correction Tips: Providing replacement text using the /Alt entry for links
Submit buttons must use the submit-form action in PDF forms.
Submit buttons must use the submit-form action in PDF forms.
A mechanism should be provided that allows users to explicitly request a change of context using the submit-form action in a PDF form.
WCAG Correction Tips: Providing submit buttons with the submit-form action
Headers and footers should be provided and consistent on each page.
Headers and footers should be provided and consistent on each page.
Headers and footers help make content easier to use and understandable by providing repeated information in a consistent and predictable way. This check only runs if the document has two or more pages.
There are two possible reasons that can be returned:
/Footer Artifact was found, but no /Header Artifact was found. This could signify that the page does not contain a header consistent across this page and others, though such consistency could be accomplished through other means. Manual check is needed.
No /Header or /Footer Artifact found. This could signify that the page lacks a header or footer that would be consistent across this page and others, though such consistency could be accomplished through other means. Manual check is needed.
WCAG Correction Tips: Providing running headers and footers in PDF Documents
Default language set using the /Lang entry in the document catalog.
Default language set using the /Lang entry in the document catalog.
Screen reading software uses the default language to determine how it will pronounce text. The reader can distort certain words if the language is not correctly set. Use the /Lang entry in the document catalog.
Possible reasons:
Could not find the language setting. Please verify that the language is set.
Could not verify that the language is not empty. Please verify that the language is set.
WCAG Correction Tips: Setting the Default Language using /Lang
Decorative images should be hidden using the Artifact tag.
Decorative images should be hidden using the Artifact tag.
Purely decorative images in PDFs must be marked with the /Artifact tag so that assistive technologies ignore them. Artifacts are elements that are not part of the meaningful content. These can include headers and footers, divider lines, or images.
Reason given:
Please review all 'X'(number of images found) images on the page to see if any of them need to be marked as background images using the Artifact tag.
WCAG Correction Tips: Hiding decorative images with the Artifact tag
Pages should be consistently numbered.
Pages should be consistently numbered.
Not having consistent page numbering in a document makes it challenging for navigation. If the page numbering used by the PDF viewer control differs from the numbering on the pages, users can not navigate to the referenced pages by entering the page number in the PDF viewer control.
WCAG Correction Tips: Specifying Consistent Page Numbering for PDFs
There are some PDF accessibility checks that can return Needs Manual Review and/or Failed flage, depending upon the reason. Those checks are listed below and linked to the appropriate section in the Pass/Fail Accessibility Issues article.
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