PDF Content

Content placed on the website is available for public consumption. Even if a document is placed on the server and never linked on a page, it could be found through a site search or an internet search engine.

Other solutions are available for private document sharing including Microsoft OneDrive, DropBox and FTP sites.

PDF documents are less accessible and mobile-friendly than a web page. If content can be communicated on a page, that is the preferred format for user experience, website maintenance and site performance.

Forms that only require input from a single user can often be managed more efficiently by a web form. Web forms provide more accessibility for users with disabilities, better mobile experience, easier updates and improved management opportunities.

Learn More About Forms

• Add alt descriptions to images.
• Use paragraph styles to structure headings (Title through Heading 6).
• Run the “Accessibility Checker.” (File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility). This tool will highlight any accessibility issues that need to be addressed.
• In the Save As dialog, select PDF as the file type. Add a title to your document.
• In “Optimize for:”, select Minimum size (publishing online).
• In Options… select “Create bookmarks using Headings” and “Document structure tags for accessibility.”

Learn More from Microsoft 365

Tips for Users Creating Accessible Forms

Microsoft has two content controls (data inputs) that convert reliably in Adobe Acrobat form fields of the same kind. These can be placed in your document and render correctly in Acrobat to create accurate form controls when the “Prepare a Form” function is ran.

• Check Box Content Control
• Plain Text Content Control

To insert, make sure the Developer tab is available in the ribbon interface. Place your cursor where you’d like the input to appear, and click the appropriate button from the menu.

“Prepare a Form” works most effectively when:

• Text input labels display before the input fields on the same line.
• Checkboxes appear before their labels.

Please note, Excel is best utilized for tabular data and is not recommended as a layout program.

Best Practices for Excel

• Use paragraph styles to create structure.
• Export as PDF (Interactive).
• Enable “Create Tagged PDF.”
• Enable “Use Structure of Tab Order.”
• “Display Title” field is set to “Document Title.”
• Add Metadata including title, description, etc.

Learn More Directly from Adobe

If you are exporting a document from a program other than what’s listed, please follow that application’s recommendations for exporting compliant PDFs. Submitting parties will be responsible for remediation of documents that aren’t compliant.