Convert a PowerPoint to an Accessible WCAG-Compliant PDF

Introduction: Accessibility Matters

Welcome to our detailed guide on enhancing document accessibility. Today, our focus will be on converting a PowerPoint presentation into a PDF while ensuring it meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards.

WCAG compliance is vital in today’s digital environment, creating equal access to information and providing everyone with a seamless digital experience. Let’s delve into the process.

Steps to Convert PowerPoint to Accessible WCAG-Compliant PDF

Before converting to PDF – apply all of your accessibility elements to your PPT file.

An essential tool you need for this process is the Adobe Acrobat toolbar. This tool is part of Adobe Acrobat Pro, and if you don’t have it installed on your computer, you’ll need to use the File Save As option to retain the formatting when converting your PowerPoint document into a PDF.

Once the Acrobat toolbar is installed, simply select the tool bar and choose ‘Create PDF’, save your document, and voila! Your file is now open in Adobe Acrobat, ready to be made accessible.

Tagging for Accessibility

The first step in making your PDF accessible is to open up the tags panel. By doing this, you’ll notice various ‘section’ tags throughout your file. While these are not inherently problematic, it is much cleaner to place everything under a single ‘document’ tag. To do this, right-click in the tags panel, select ‘New Tag’, type ‘document’, and click ‘OK’. Following this, move all your tags from the tags tree underneath your new ‘document’ tag using the select-all and drag feature.

Now, with all tags under the ‘document’ tag, you can begin to walk the tags panel. Be aware that the ‘section’, ‘art’, and ‘part’ tags are visual-only and, as of the recording of this guide, do not affect Assistive Technology. Thus, you can choose to either remove or keep them, as desired.

Next, keep walking through your tags panel and adjust the reading order if necessary. Check the alternate text on images to ensure they are accurate and descriptive. It is crucial to note that accessibility also entails that images are correctly labeled with alternate texts. This information can be added by right-clicking the ‘figure’ tags, selecting ‘properties’, and typing in the alternate text panel.

You can also rename tags for better understanding and organization. For example, renaming a ‘section’ tag to ‘slide one’ will help keep track of your progress, especially when dealing with complicated slides.

Ensuring Proper Formatting for Accessibility

While walking through the tags panel, keep checking that the tags are correct and properly arranged. Note that this process is less laborious if you start with an accessible PowerPoint template. All that’s left then is to verify that the tags are appropriate.

During this process, make sure that the links have transferred correctly. This is important as it makes sure the reader can navigate through the document as intended. Remember, an accessible document is not just about the content being available, but also that the structure and navigation are user-friendly.

Verifying Metadata and Accessibility Check

After validating the tags, the next step is to check the metadata of your document. This can be done by selecting ‘File’ and then ‘Properties’. This window allows you to adjust the title, author, subject, and keywords of the document, further enhancing its accessibility.

Following the metadata adjustment, run an accessibility check by selecting the ‘Accessibility’ button and then ‘Start Checking’. This check will scan the document for potential issues and provide you with a report indicating whether your PDF meets accessibility standards.

Further Steps Towards WCAG Compliance

Sometimes, the accessibility checker might flag potential issues under specific categories. Fear not, as most of these can be easily addressed. For example, a common issue may be the document title. To fix this, right-click the ‘title’ in the accessibility checker report and select ‘fix’. Now your document is accessible within Adobe Acrobat, but we can still take it further.

To make your PDF WCAG compliant, you can use the PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC) tool. This tool provides a more comprehensive check of your document against WCAG standards. Drag your file into the PAC tool and check for potential errors.

Troubleshooting WCAG Compliance Issues

Sometimes, errors can occur with the document’s visual elements, like contrast ratios. WCAG standards require a certain level of contrast for text and images to ensure readability for people with visual impairments. A common error might be that the contrast for bullet points is not appropriate, which would require adjusting the color in your PowerPoint file.

Such errors can be detected using a Color Contrast Analyzer tool, which lets you check the contrast ratio of your text and background colors. If an error is detected, simply go back to your PowerPoint file, select the ‘Edit’ button, and change the color of the bullet points to meet the contrast requirements.

The Importance of Continuous Learning in Accessibility

Even experienced accessibility experts may occasionally overlook some aspects, reminding us that there is always room for improvement. For instance, there might be a need to adjust the color of certain elements within PowerPoint for improved contrast, which can be a lesson for future presentations.

Remember, the journey to creating fully accessible documents is ongoing. Regular practice and continuous learning will enhance your skills over time.

As always, I’m here to assist in making your PDF documents accessible. I hope this guide has been helpful and I look forward to sharing more accessibility tips and techniques with you in my upcoming posts.

Additional posts

How to Make PDFs Accessible | Episode 9: West Hills College Leemore

Welcome to episode nine on community college PDF accessibility. Today, we focus on West Hills College Leemore’s 2023-2024 Instructional Calendar. Video Guide In case you missed them, here are Episode 1, Episode 2,  Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, and Episode 8 in our PDF Accessibility Community College Series. Understanding PDF Accessibility Challenges Difficulty in Locating Accessible PDFs…

How to Make PDFs Accessible | Episode 8: Fresno City College

Welcome to episode eight on community college PDF accessibility. Today, we focus on Fresno City College’s form for Biomedical Equipment Technicians. Video Guide In case you missed them, here are Episode 1, Episode 2,  Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, and Episode 7 in our PDF Accessibility Community College Series. Key Takeaways from This Episode This episode reveals common…

How to Make PDFs Accessible | Episode 7: Reedley College

Welcome to episode seven on community college PDF accessibility. Today, we focus on Reedley Community College’s document “HSE Enrollment Form.” Video Guide In case you missed them, here are Episode 1, Episode 2,  Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, and Episode 6 in our PDF Accessibility Community College Series. Key Takeaways from this Episode This episode reveals common issues with…

How to Make PDFs Accessible | Episode 6: Fullerton College

Welcome to episode six on community college PDF accessibility. Today, we focus on Fullerton Community College’s document “Points of Interest and Clarification Architecture.” Video Guide In case you missed them, here are Episode 1, Episode 2,  Episode 3, Episode 4 and Episode 5 in our PDF Accessibility Community College Series. Start with a quick review of the tags panel.…

How to Remove a Digital Signature from a PDF

Hi! I’m Shawn Jordison and welcome to The Accessibility Guy blog. In today’s post, we’re learning how to remove a digital signature from a PDF using Adobe Acrobat Pro. Video Guide Why remove a digital signature? You might be wondering why you’d want to remove a digital signature in the first place. Here are some reasons: How to…

How to Compress a PDF: A Simple Guide to Smaller File Sizes

Hi! I’m Shawn Jordison and welcome to The Accessibility Guy blog. In today’s post, we’re learning how to compress a PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro. Compressing PDFs makes large files quick and easy to share. You can reduce a PDF size by 20% to 30% without compromising quality or readability. Video Guide Following this guide…

How to make PDFs Accessible | Episode 5: Irvine Valley College

Welcome to episode five on community college PDF accessibility. Today, we focus on Irvine Valley College’s DSPS Student Parent Night 2023 document. Video Guide In case you missed them, here are Episode 1, Episode 2,  Episode 3 and Episode 4 in our PDF Accessibility Community College Series. Key Issues from this Episode The document originated from PowerPoint. We…

How to Insert a Digital Signature into a PDF Document

This guide explains how to add a blank signature field to a PDF document using Adobe Acrobat Pro. A digital signature is more secure that an ink signature. PDF readers can check that the document was written and signed by the same person and has not been modified by an unknown person. Video Guide Follow…

Loading…

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

One thought on “Convert a PowerPoint to an Accessible WCAG-Compliant PDF”

Leave a Reply

%d