Create accessible forms

Thanks for joining us today to learn how to create accessible forms in Acrobat Pro.

Today I am covering the following steps to make a form accessible. First, you need to make sure your PDF file is accessible. Second, you add form fields to your PDF file. Third, review and edit the types of form fields. Fourth, check field names and add tooltips. Fifth, check the form field tab order. Sixth, add form tags for each field. And last, you move your form tag to the corresponding p-tag within the tag structure. Following this sequence of steps helps ensure that your PDF forms are 100% accessible.

The first step is to make sure your PDF is tagged and accessible. To start, make sure that your PDF file is tagged by opening the tags panel. If you created your PDF in Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign, or Google Docs, it will already be tagged like this one. If it’s not, run the Automatically Tag Documents for Accessibility tool that we added to the Quick Actions toolbar in the Set Up Your Workspace tutorial. You can also find this tool under All Tools, Prepare for Accessibility. Next, make sure the file is accessible by running Check for Accessibility. Now you’re ready for step two. The second step is to add interactive form fields. Let Acrobat add the form fields for you automatically by using the Prepare a Form tool. Make sure that you have Auto Detect Form, Field On. And that’s it, Acrobat has automatically added the fields. The third step is to check that the form fields are the type you want. Sometimes Acrobat puts a text field where you might not want it, like this one at the top over the decorative line. It also missed the radio buttons for the phone type, so we’ll quickly fix these things. Also, we need to add a button field for registration. I’ll quickly add a button field with a proper name and tooltip that is invisible and submits the PDF to our registration website. Fourth, check each form field name and tooltip. Descriptive form field names and tooltips are necessary for every field. This is because assistive technology reads the tooltip and not the field name. The quickest way to do this is to right-click on Windows or control-click on the Mac and open the Properties dialog. You can leave this dialog open. I’ll quickly add a helpful tooltip to each form field or make sure that it matches the text label that is adjacent to the form field. The fifth step on our checklist is to set the form field tab order. Just like reading order, which is typically top to bottom, and left to right, you’ll want to make it easy for the user to fill out the fields. To see a visual indication of the tab order, select Show Tab Numbers under the Options menu. You can select each field and drag and drop it to its correct order in the Fields pane. Or you can just select the funnel and change it to Order Tabs by Row and Acrobat does the work for you. Okay, now comes the fun part. The sixth step is to add the form fields to the Tags tree in the Accessibility Tags panel. Select the top of the tree tags. That’s the root. And it’s really important. Select the three dots and select Find and select Unmarked Annotations. Form fields like sticky notes are considered annotations in the PDF specification. So that’s how it’s referenced here. Just remember, Unmarked Annotations will find all your form fields. Always remember to select Search Document vs. Search Page just to make sure you find them all. When you select Find, the field is highlighted in magenta. Now select Tag Element and select Form from the type list. Select OK. Notice how Acrobat has already jumped to the next unmarked annotation this field. And when I select Tag Element, it’s still on Form. So I’ll just select OK again and I’ll complete this for the rest of the form fields. You’ll notice as I tag each field, the form tags are appearing at the bottom of the Tags tree, not in line where they belong. Don’t worry about fixing this because it’s covered in the next step. And the last step is to move the form tag to the corresponding paragraph tag. Next, move these form tags into the tree. Here’s a trick to get started. Highlight the text next to the form field, in this case Date of Event. In the Accessibility Tags panel, select the three dots and select Find Tag from Selection. Now you’re right where you need to be in the Tags tree to start moving the form tags to their corresponding paragraph tag. You can drag and drop the form fields to their proper location in the Tags tree. Move the tag under the label, not the P tag. Or you can right-click to cut and paste them into the proper location. You could also use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl-X to cut and Ctrl-V to paste. And then do it for the rest of the fields using whatever technique you prefer. Here’s a quick check-in on creating accessible forms. Setting the tab order is necessary to make a PDF file with form fields accessible. True or false? This is true. Setting the form field tab order is necessary to make a PDF file with form fields accessible. And that’s it. Now you’re ready to make PDF files with form fields accessible in Acrobat Pro.