How to Make PDFs Accessible | Episode 17: Cerro Coso College

Welcome to Episode 17 of our College PDF Accessibility series. Today, we focus on Cerro Coso College’s Student Equity Plan.

Video Guide

If you are interested in the real-life practice and nuances of document remediation, read Episode 1, Episode 2,  Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 12, Episode 13, Episode 14, Episode 15, and Episode 16  in our PDF Accessibility Community College Series.

Document Selection and Initial Review

To get started, I selected a Student Equity Plan for 2022 through 2025, available in both PDF and PowerPoint formats. A quick review of the PDF file showed it wasn’t designed with accessibility in mind. The presentation was full of section tags, figure tags, and art tags. This indicates it had been converted from Microsoft PowerPoint, which often leads to accessibility problems.

PowerPoint Accessibility Issues

Identifying Problems

1. Missing Titles: Several slides lacked titles, making navigation difficult for screen readers.
2. Text Boxes: Many slides used text boxes instead of content placeholders, which messed up the reading order.
3. Images of Text: Some slides had images of text, making them inaccessible to screen readers.
4. Lack of Alt Text: Images lacked descriptive alt text, which is essential for screen reader users.
5. Color Contrast: Some text didn’t meet color contrast requirements, making it hard to read.

Initial Fixes in PowerPoint

To address these issues, set up a slide design theme to ensure all content is placed within accessible content boxes. Start by creating a new slide and customizing the Slide Master to include appropriate text placeholders.

1. Creating a Slide Design Theme: This ensured consistency and accessibility across the presentation.
2. Adding Titles: Give each slide a clear, descriptive title.
3. Reformatting Content: Replace text boxes with content placeholders to improve the reading order.
4. Adding Alt Text: Add descriptive alt text to all images.

Despite these efforts, the presentation still had accessibility issues. We converted it to a PDF for further remediation.

PDF Accessibility Remediation

Initial Review and Tagging

After converting the PowerPoint to a PDF, review the tags panel to ensure the content is correctly structured. The document initially had numerous list items and improperly tagged figures, which required extensive manual adjustments.

1. Tagging Structure: Re-tag the document to ensure a logical reading order.
2. Removing Artifacts: Mark decorative elements as artifacts to exclude them from the reading order.
3. Alt Text: Add missing alt text to images to make them accessible.

Detailed Remediation Steps

1. Setting Document Properties: Add metadata such as the title, author, and subject to improve document accessibility.
2. Running Accessibility Checker: Adobe Acrobat’s accessibility checker identified remaining issues, such as missing alt text and improper tagging.
3. Using PAC 2024 Tool: Further validated the document using the PAC 2024 tool, which revealed issues with font embedding and structural elements.

Download the Free Section 508 Checklist for PDF Accessibility:

Final PDF Accessibility Assessment

Despite extensive efforts, the document remains significantly flawed in terms of accessibility. Key issues included:

1. Inconsistent Tagging: Some content remained improperly tagged.
2. Images of Text: These continued to pose significant accessibility barriers.
3. Color Contrast: Some text failed to meet color contrast requirements.
4. Manual Effort: The remediation process was time-consuming and required detailed manual adjustments.

Conclusion

This episode highlights the challenges of converting and remediating documents not designed with accessibility in mind. The Cerro Coso College equity plan, initially created in Google Docs and converted to PowerPoint and then to PDF, demonstrated numerous accessibility failures. Despite detailed remediation efforts, the document’s accessibility remained inadequate, illustrating the importance of designing documents with accessibility from the start.

Let me be your champion for inclusion. I offer tailored solutions (and self-paced courses!) to ensure your documents meet and exceed compliance expectations. For more detailed insights, tutorials, and in-depth discussions on accessibility and related topics, don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel: The Accessibility Guy on YouTube. Subscribe for regular updates!