How to Create a 508 Compliant PDF

There are so many PDF files hosted on the public Internet that it’s almost like a whole second version of the World Wide Web. Users can find in-depth articles, scientific research and even entire books in this format even if they wouldn’t otherwise find this information on a standard site.

Many people would have some difficulty handling these documents, however. Section 508 requirements specifically spell out what the United States Department of Health and Human Services expects of people who publish PDFs online.

While individual private sites might theoretically not have to worry about these guidelines, all but a few are good practices even just from the standpoint of computer usability. Those who run public .edu resources, accept government money or do any kind of work for a government agency will certainly want to ensure that they’re followed to avoid any legal implications.

Fortunately, it’s easy to create a 508 compliant PDF document simply by following each of these guidelines:

• Tag the file and then make sure that the document title is completely filled out in the properties sheet. These rules come from the WCAG 2.0 guidelines, and you should more than likely follow them anyway.
• Set the language of the document correctly. If it includes text from more than one language, then you may have to specify this.
• Check it against an Adobe-certified Accessibility Checker. A tool like SiteCompliance can perform this kind of inspection for many different resources hosted on your server.
• Eliminate any content that flashes more than three times in a single second. Even though it’s not a requirement, most typesetters and graphic artists would tell you not to use animation or flashing designs in a PDF document anyway.
• Take a look at the list of bookmarks. You need to provide accurate ones for any document longer than nine pages.
• Purge out any notes, comments or track changes that you might have stored in the document. Microsoft Word users will also need to remove file paths.
• If you’ve used any non-standard tags, then make sure they’re mapped to standard ones. All information content should be contained directly in the tag structure. They should also be formatted correctly and arranged in the right order.
• Check to make sure that all paragraph tags represent visual paragraphs. You’ll also want to make sure that the text flows correctly and remains readable even when magnified up to 200 percent of its original size.
• Don’t convey information purely by color. Those who can’t distinguish certain colors or use monochrome displays won’t be able to see it. Make sure that links are tagged properly and underlined.
• Get rid of any images of text. All text has to be actual typeset content to work with screen reading software and command line-based utilities.

In most cases, these guidelines are enough to ensure compliance. Do your best to avoid relying on embedded content. If you’re creating plain text PDFs with proper captions for images, then you shouldn’t have to work too hard. Avoiding images altogether will take most of the guesswork out of the process, and it might even help reduce the load on your server by trimming down file sizes.

Ensuring that All Your Online Resources are Compliant

While the HHS does provide some other guidelines involving things like file names, these may not necessarily apply to your specific situation. Considering how many files some organizations have hosted, it can be hard to tell whether or not any of these particular rules are relevant.

SiteCompliance takes all the guesswork out of the process and can help ensure that you don’t run afoul of the law. Contact us today when you’re ready to learn more about how an automated compliance audit can ensure your site remains accessible for all users.