PDFs

What is a PDF?

A PDF is not just a picture. It is a special type of file for documents. A PDF contains much more information than you can see displayed visually. Embedded in a PDF is data about the type of content, the document’s author, image descriptions, and the order in which the content should be read. 

When creating a PDF, you need to do more than make it look attractive — you need to ensure all the data is included and properly formatted to comply with digital accessibility requirements. This is called PDF remediation. It requires commercial, paid software called Adobe Acrobat--not the free Adobe Reader or another default system PDF viewer.

PDFs, especially those with tables or other graphic elements, are notoriously difficult to remediate. 

Remediation of PDFs is a learned skill and adds time (sometimes significant) to your PDF process. For this reason, we recommend you avoid PDFs as much as possible.

Exporting your document from Word or Google Docs to PDF will mess up the accessibility settings, and it will need additional remediation. 

Why is this document being so discouraging about PDFs?

You might be getting the impression that we are strongly against using PDFs and PDF remediation, that is correct.

PDF remediation is extremely time consuming and has a very steep learning curve. It is easy to spend hours (yes, hours) remediating even a simple PDF document.

Unless you have a really good reason to use PDFs and there is truly no other solution, our recommendation is to do everything in your power to avoid PDFs. For most cases, there are better alternatives to PDFs. 

We are unable to provide support for your PDFs, including checking them to tell you what to fix. 

PDF alternatives

For making a fillable form

Use Google Forms. 

If you can go through your VCE office, you can also use Extended Education (Destiny) at the discretion of your agent.

For promoting an event

You can create an attractive graphic and put details about your event in plain text in the body of the email, social media post, or calendar event you create. See our information about alternatives to event flyers.

Work with your Extension office to create an event on the VCE calendar called Time.ly or Facebook event and distribute a link to it rather than sending a PDF.

For distributing written information

Use a Google Doc or a Word doc, but don't convert them to PDF.  Send as a Google Doc set to "view only" or a Word Document. Make sure to check the accessibility. 

• Check your Google doc for accessibility (short video)

• Use accessibility check in Word (short video)

For a newsletter

See our suggestions for transitioning your newsletter to a different format.

For PowerPoint slides

Rather than remediating finished slides, make sure your presentation is accessible from the start. 

To help with this, use the VCE .ppt template, but make sure to use these pre-made slide designs as intended. Don't add a lot of new text boxes, text images, table screenshots, etc., unless you know how to make them accessible.

Send the slides as a PowerPoint file, don't convert it to PDF. We know this creates a problem because, yes, theoretically your slides could be edited. Unfortunately this is our best suggestion for sending out an accessible slide deck.

Making your PDF accessible

PDF accessibility is a learned skill. In particular, remediating a PDF generated in Canva (where some newsletters are created) can be very difficult and requires a significant time investment.

Sharing a Canva document via a view link on Canva.com does not make the document accessible. Canva does not enable headings and other necessary accessibility features in its newsletter templates.

PDFs also cannot be made accessible in Canva; they will need to be remediated using external software such as Acrobat Pro.

There is no shortcut to make a non-accessible PDF accessible.

Exporting your document from Word or Google Docs to PDF will mess up the accessibility and it will need additional remediation. 

Additional links:

• What is PDF accessibility video (explains what it means to make a PDF “accessible”)

• Video/demonstration of why Canva documents are not accessible (despite what the messaging on their website says). Note that this video demonstrates the “document” file type in Canva — which does have some accessibility features that are not enabled for the “newsletter” file type — and it is still not accessible.

• LinkedIn Learning PDF accessibility series

FAQ

• What if I upload my PDF and send a link, send it as an image, etc? Does that mean it is "accessible"? No loophole or shortcut will make a non-accessible PDF accessible (other than manual PDF remediation). Turning your PDF into an image, putting the file on your website, uploading it to Google Drive, etc., does not make a non-accessible PDF accessible. It is the responsibility of the PDF creator to implement PDF accessibility skills as they approach their document. Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to help remediate PDF newsletters.

• What if I share a “view only” Canva link to my document? Canva documents are not accessible. Canva does not support the types of metadata, tagging, etc., necessary to make a highly-designed document navigable for a screen reader.

• What if I create a separate accessible version? An alternative accessible version of a PDF newsletter you send out, along with the inaccessible PDF, is not Title II compliant. For example, you can not distribute your inaccessible PDF alongside an accessible version of the document created in Google Docs.