Operation Manual

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257

USING ACROBAT X STANDARD

Accessibility, tags, and reflow

Last updated 10/11/2011

2. Set and test the tab order of a form.

The tab order for form fields enables people with disabilities to use a keyboard to move from field to field in a logical

order. In PDF forms, set the tab order to Use Document Structure. You can test the tab order of a form by using the

following keyboard commands:

• Tab to move focus to the next field

• Shift+Tab to move focus to the previous field

• Spacebar to select options

• Arrow keys to select options or list items

3. Tag the PDF form and correct tagging issues.

If the PDF form is already tagged, use the TouchUp Reading Order tool in Acrobat to tag each form field. This tool

also enables you to fix any reading order problems of the text labels for the form fields. For example, you may need to

split merged lines of fields into individual fields.

More Help topics

“Set form field navigation” on page 164

Making existing PDFs accessible

Add tags to an existing PDF

Creating a tagged document directly from an authoring application is the best way to make PDFs accessible. However,

if a PDF was created without tags, you can add them using Add Tags To Document.

1 Open the PDF.

2 Choose Tools > Accessibility > Add Tags To Document.

Note: The Add Tags To Document command removes any tags that were in the document before the command was run.

Make Adobe PDF forms accessible

You can make form fields accessible to vision- and motion-challenged users by adding tags to the PDF and by properly

structuring it. In addition, you can use the tool tip form field property to provide the user with information about the

field or to provide instructions. For example, using the tool tip property value, the screen reader could say “Your

name.” Without the tool tip property, a screen reader simply names the type of form field.

1 If necessary, choose Tools > Forms > Edit, and make sure that the Select Object tool is selected.

2 Double-click a selected form field to open the Properties window.

3 In the General tab, type a description into the tool tip box.

Note: If you use Designer ES for creating your form, you must run the screen reader before opening the form in Acrobat

in order to display accessibility tags with a flowable layout in Acrobat.