How to Make Your PDFs Accessible for Visually Impaired Mobile Users

Have you ever thought that PDFs can also be inaccessible? They can, and people with visual impairments won’t be able to read your PDFs if they are not accessible. It is a social responsibility to make your PDFs accessible to every user. Everyone should feel that they are no different than anyone else. 

PDF accessibility has become a way to boost company image and fulfill social responsibilities. Any information that should reach your target audience should follow the accessibility guidelines. This will allow the visually impaired mobile users to access your PDFs easily. However, there can be some challenges in making a PDF accessible for mobile users. For those challenges, we are here to help you out. Acadecraft is the best PDF accessibility service provider. 

Now, let’s discuss the other aspects of PDF accessibility for visually impaired users in detail.

How Important is Making Your PDFs Accessible?

PDF accessibility is a feature your PDFs should not miss. Keeping every user happy despite their disability is what makes you a good company for your customers. Making your PDFs accessible is mandatory. 

The US and Canadian governments have passed these rules that you should make your PDFs accessible to all users. If you fail to do so, there will be lawsuits against your organization. That is why PDF accessibility is so important to keep the sanity of your business alive. Find out the importance of PDF accessibility below:

Everyone Should be Informed: 

In an organization, information should be passed to every employee as quickly as possible. If you hire someone specially-abled with visuals, how will they read your inaccessible documents? Making your PDFs accessible is necessary so that your staff can get the information and act accordingly. This applies to your stakeholders and customers, too. 

They are entitled to have access to all the relevant information about your company. They deserve to know about your company's objectives and what you are up to. To give everyone the freedom to read your documents, PDF accessibility is necessary. 

Expand Your Market Reach: 

If you are thinking about expanding your business in the market, then you have to be able to serve everyone. Your PDF accessibility is what makes your business image shiner than ever. If people develop a trust that your company is considering every person’s needs then they will connect with your product. 

PDF accessibility will help people to develop this trust in your brand. This way, you can expand your business reach to visually impaired people by informing them about your products/services. 

Makes your SEO Optimized and Searchable: 

Making your PDFs accessible includes writing everything to increase readability. If a person is reading your PDF on a mobile device, then they should be able to have full access. PDF accessibility for mobile users includes writing alt texts for images and complete headings. This will improve your visibility on the search engines. 

Many search engines use these SEO-optimized details to make your PDFs more visible on the internet. If your PDFs are easily searchable then it will improve your company’s organic traffic and search results. 

Avoid Legal Actions: 

If your company is not working as per the government regulations, then it can cause you plenty of legal issues. PDF accessibility is something that should be done by the company to follow government rules and regulations. The government of the United States and many other European governments have very strict rules against this. 

They want companies to make their PDFs accessible for everyone including the visually impaired mobile users. If the companies are not following that then they will be sued by the government lawyers or users. If you want to avoid such situations then make sure you are making your PDF accessible for mobile users and other people, too.

Become People’s Choice:

If you want to make your company and your products everyone’s favorite, then you have to make your PDFs accessible at any cost. Suppose you have two PDF options with the same information, but they have different features and accessibility rates. First, PDFs can be listened to easily and can be read in a screen magnifier. 

The other PDF option can’t do all that. Which one will you choose? The first one, right? That is why you should make your PDFs accessible to the people and for the visually impaired mobile users so that you can become everyone’s choice. 

Why Visual Impaired Mobile Users Require PDF Accessibility?

Visually Impaired mobile users read things on their mobile devices with the help of screen readers and a screen magnifier. They need documents that can support their disabilities and help them read things to access important information. PDF accessibility is essential for visually impaired mobile users, it can provide them a chance to access information that others can too. There are some reasons why normal PDFs trouble visually impaired mobile users:

1. Screen Readers: People with visual disabilities need screen readers to read documents on their mobile devices. They use these features to access information that is live to everyone. But normal PDFs don’t support screen readers. Due to this, visually impaired users don’t get the information they need. Your PDF accessibility will ensure that each user can read and enjoy your PDFs easily.

2. Information Equality: Everyone in this world deserves to know every accessible information. PDF accessibility makes it possible for you. With the help of PDF accessibility, you can ensure that your crafted documents are providing equal information to everyone. If you want to assure your users about the accessibility, dial Acadecraft and bring the change.

3. Navigation and Orientation: Visually impaired mobile users can have trouble using small screens to read documents. Normal PDFs that are not completely accessible can cause trouble for those who are not able to access PDFs on their mobile devices. PDF accessibility allows visually impaired users to read their PDFs and navigate information on smaller screens effortlessly. With the help of proper tags, users can jump to headings easily. They don’t have to make that much effort to navigate through PDFs. 

4. Removing Dependency: If you are using PDF accessibility, then your visually impaired users will have more than just information. They will feel confident because they won’t have to depend on anyone to read a  PDF document for them. Your accessible PDFs will give visually impaired mobile users a chance to feel independent and normal. Providing your users with satisfaction with just a PDF can boost your website’s goodwill in the market. 

Issues Mobile Users Faces While Reading Inaccessible PDFs

If you are willing to make your PDFs accessible, then you need to understand what issues mobile users face while accessing PDFs that do not contain accessibility features. We have mentioned some common issues that mobile accessibility faces.

1. Visibility: Mobile users with visual impairments find documents hard to read when they are not made with accessibility features. To give them equal rights and access to the world’s information. You can try to increase the font size, reduce images in the PDF, and make the color contrasts most visible to everyone. These are the basic things you can do to increase the PDF accessibility of your documents. 

2. Usability: If your PDFs are not accessible then visually impaired users won’t be able to use them. Their purpose of using a mobile device will become pale and dull as they won’t be able to access the information on their mobile devices. You need to make your PDFs accessible to users with disabilities.

3. Understanding:  As an information provider, it is your responsibility to make content easier for people with disabilities. Your audience always expects that you will provide services that make things easier for them. If the documents provide information in a pattern that helps people understand everything, will build their trust in you. 

Steps to Make a PDF Accessible For Mobile Users!

There are different steps and methods by which PDFs can become accessible. Making a PDF accessible has now become the responsibility of corporates presenting their files to the world. These few steps are necessary for the PDF accessibility:

1. Use of Document Structure or Reading Order: To make PDF accessible, you need to make sure you use the correct techniques to define the document's structure. The structure is essential in making your document visible and readable to people with impaired vision. 

2. Adding ALT Text: If people are accessing your documents on their mobile devices then it is possible that they might not be able to see your images due to physical issues or internet issues. In either case, adding alt texts to your document helps you in resolving the issue. ALT texts are one of the major elements of PDF accessibility service. 

3. Text Size Should be Adequate: Using the best size for PDF texts helps people to read the document without having any issues with visibility. Increasing the size of the text makes your PDFs accessible and visible to mobile users. Mobile users access documents on a small screen, which is why it is necessary to have an adequate text size in your PDFs.

4. Use Better Fonts: Try to avoid fancy fonts and cursive fonts that make the document difficult to read. You can use simple and accessible fonts to make your PDF accessible. Fonts will determine how easily your texts can be read by the visually impaired mobile user.

5. Use Descriptive Link Text: If your PDF includes links then you have to write the descriptive text that defines the destination of that link. It will help the users understand the relevance of the link without even going for it.

6. Use Correct Format in Tables: Using tables to present the data has always been a favorable way. However, your tables can be useless for mobile users if you are not making them in a mobile-friendly format. To make PDF accessibility a success, your tables should have the correct format to make documents visible to visually impaired mobile users.

7. Audio Descriptions: In PDF accessibility, audio descriptions play a significant role. Adding audio descriptions will help your visually challenged users get information from your PDF documents easily. They will be able to access the details you’ve shared with them through audio descriptions. 

Conclusion

PDF accessibility services are very essential for multiple reasons. Make your users feel like you have taken care of their needs and requirements by adding accessibility features to your documents. Visually impaired mobile users will lean toward your company if your documents support their needs. If they can access your PDF files through mobile devices then it will improve your company’s image in the market. PDF accessibility also helps you avoid any legal objections to your company as the government has made it mandatory to make accessible PDFs.