Before making changes to a PDF, use Acrobat's Accessibility Checker to assess its current accessibility and identify issues requiring attention.

1. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
2. Select All tools > Prepare for accessibility. You may need to select View more to locate this tool.
3. Select Check for accessibility.
4. Review the Accessibility Checker options and select Start Checking.
5. Review the results to identify issues that may require correction or further investigation.

The Accessibility Checker reports issues that have passed, failed, or require manual verification. Some reported issues may not require correction, while other accessibility concerns may not be detected automatically.

Acrobat Pro is recommended for assessing PDF accessibility and making targeted corrections to documents that already have a usable accessibility structure.

Common uses include:

• Checking a PDF for potential accessibility issues.
• Reviewing and correcting existing document tags and reading order.
• Correcting headings, lists, links, and table structure.
• Adding or correcting alternative text for images.
• Correcting document properties, including title and language.
• Applying optical character recognition (OCR) to scanned documents.
• Reviewing PDFs processed by automated remediation tools.

Acrobat may be particularly useful when a document requires only a limited number of corrections and its existing accessibility features can be preserved.

Some remediation tasks in Acrobat require familiarity with PDF tags, document structure, and reading order. Complex documents, particularly those containing tables, forms, multiple columns, or intricate layouts, may require substantial manual work.

Automated features such as OCR and automatic tagging can provide a useful starting point, but their results must be reviewed. Automatically generated tags and reading order may not accurately represent the document's content or structure.

Avoid replacing or rebuilding an existing tag structure when targeted corrections will address the identified issues.

If a PDF requires extensive structural remediation, consider whether the original source document can be corrected and exported again, or whether another remediation tool may be more appropriate.

After any remediation efforts, run the Acrobat Accessibility Checker again and review the results.

Pay particular attention to:

• Document tags and logical reading order.
• Headings, lists, and table structure.
• Alternative text for meaningful images.
• Links and interactive elements.
• Document title and language.

Automated accessibility checks cannot identify every accessibility issue. Manual inspection and, when appropriate, testing with assistive technology may be needed before publishing.