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Library Accessibility & Instruction Guide

A guide that compiles information about accessibility best practices for instruction, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), tutorials & resources, as well as accessibility of MSU library resources.

PDF Accessibility in Adobe Pro

  1. Open PDF in Adobe Acrobat DC (Pro).  
  2. Click Action Wizard, on the right sidebar 
    • If Action Wizard is not there, click Tools tab, scroll to bottom, and click the Add button below Action Wizard (you only have to do this once) 
  3. Click Make Accessible, then Start

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  1. Follow prompts 
  2. Add image descriptions, or mark images as decorative if they don't add meaning or were flagged by mistake 
  3. Click 'Start Checking' which actually finishes the process (this brings up the accessibility report for the document) 
  4. On left side bar, go through errors & manual checks
    • If needed, right click on the error, then choose Explain for full instructions and documentation
    • Color contrast – right click and ‘pass’ if the color contrast is B&W or very high. Otherwise, to check color contrast
    • Reading Order – open the Reading Order Tool from the left side bar and update if needed. Right click and ‘pass’ when finished.  

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  • When using the Reading Order Tool, the numbers on each box show the order in which the content will be read. To change the order, drag and drop numbered items in the left side bar.
  • To remove items from the reading order, click on the number of the box, then select 'Background/Artifact' from the Reading Order Tool menu pop-up box. 
  • If needed, drag and drop to select content, and choose the appropriate type from the Reading Oder Tool menu pop-up box (e.g. Text/Paragraph, Figure, Background/Artifact, etc.). 

Additional Resources:

Instructions for Creating Accessible Documents

When you create documents to share with your students, upload to D2L, etc., you need to first make sure they are accessible. This ensures all students can access the content in the way they need to. Here are instructions for creating different types of accessible documents: