PDF REMEDIATION DECISION TREE
NEW! We have created a special "Choose Your Own Adventure" PDF remediation Decision Tree with tips on how to make any Word, Excel, PowerPoint, InDesign, and PDF documents accessible.
In general, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 guidelines also apply to documents on a site.
Microsoft Office
Duke faculty and staff have access to download Microsoft Office 365 through software.duke.edu. If you do not have access to your own computer, you might have access to Office Online which has browser-based versions of the same software.
- Overall Creating accessible content with Microsoft 365 (Microsoft)
- Built-in Accessibility Tools in Microsoft 365 (Microsoft)
Word
- 8 Tips for a More Accessible Word Document
- Essential Word Document Tips (Microsoft)
- Deeper-dive Making Word Documents Accessible (Microsoft)
- Creating Accessible Word Documents (WebAIM)
Excel
- 7 Tips for a More Accessible Excel Document
- Essential Excel Spreadsheet Tips (Microsoft)
- Deeper-dive Making Excel Spreadsheets Accessible (Microsoft)
PowerPoint
- 8 Tips for a More Accessible PowerPoint Document
- Essential PowerPoint Presentation Tips (Microsoft)
- Deeper-dive Making Your PowerPoint Presentations Accessible (Microsoft)
- Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations (WebAIM)
Outlook
- Essential Outlook Email Tips (Microsoft)
Google Docs
- Essential tips (Google)
Adobe
Duke faculty and staff have access to purchase discounted Adobe Acrobat DC or Adobe Creative Cloud software software.duke.edu.
Acrobat PDF
- PDF Remediation decision tree
- Create and Verify PDF Accessibility (Adobe)
- Creating Accessible PDFs (WebAIM)
- Cheatsheet for Acrobat Tags
Adobe InDesign
- Tips to Create a More Accessible PDF from InDesign
- Acrobat DC: Creating Accessible PDFs from InDesign (LinkedIn Learning)
- Full Documentation from Adobe
- Tips for Mapping InDesign Styles to Tags
- Alternative documentation from UM
Remediation services
To be sustainable, content creators at Duke need to know how to make their documents accessible from the start. However, some documents are difficult to remediate and sometimes the quantity is just too high to handle. For those caes, the Duke Web Accessibility Team has researched the market for a quality PDF Remediation vendors. Our results are below.
Accessible PDFs Inc.
"Accessible PDFs Inc" have been very good to Duke. We have negociated a very generous discount for remediating our PDF files. Use Duke's direct contact. Tell them you are from Duke and Joel Crawford-Smith said to contact you for help. In our experience, they have all came back accessible and compliant. We have confidence that their work. We have negotiated a discount for Duke. The price point is very competitive.
WCAG Compliance Inc.
We recommend “WCAG Compliance Inc.” for PDF remediation. In our experience, they have all came back accessible and compliant. We have confidence that their work. We have negotiated a discount for Duke. The price point is also very competitive.
Automated tools
No automated service can make every PDF document perfectly accessible. They should always be retested to ensure compliance. This service works best on simple documents. This service should not be used for complex forms, magazines, and brochures.
Robobraille
This service can help convert a variety of documents into 'tagged' PDF files to improve a document's level of accessibility. No automated service can make a PDF perfectly accessible, but the RoboBraille service will go through and add Tags as best it can to try to improve the document's level of accessibility.
Document Converter
Document Converter is a free service that can convert files from DOCX to PDF. The result will be a tagged PDF.