Overview
This FAQ includes answers to questions related to remediating PDF files for accessibility. The basic procedure for remediating PDF files is here.
We will add to this FAQ as we identify solutions to commonly encountered issues related to PDF remediation.
Frequently Asked Questions
CommonLook PDF Validator may report these two issues for links within your document:
- Parent tag of Link annotation doesn't define the Alt attribute.
- Link Annotation doesn't define the Contents attribute.
Selecting those issues in the "Results" list will highlight the link that generated these failures:
Both failures can be resolved by adding alternate descriptions for links.
Procedure: Add Alternate Description for Links
- Open your PDF file in Adobe Acrobat.
- Click the "Accessibility Tags" icon on the right-side menu in Acrobat:
- Single-left-click on each tag in the "Accessibility Tags" list (see #1 below) until only the element containing the link is highlighted in the document (see #2 below):
- Under "Accessibility tags," click the arrow to expand the tag containing the link:
- if you don't see the <Link> tag right away, you may need to drill down further. For example, the <Link> might be nested within a <Reference> tag, which in turn may be nested within a <Span> tag.
- Right-click on the <Link> tag and select "Properties" from the pop-up menu:
- In the "Object Properties" dialog box, enter a meaningful description for the link target in the "Alternate Description for Links" field (see #1 below).
- Click the Close button (see #2 below):
- Repeat steps 3 through 8 above for any other links that generated failures in CommonLook PDF Validator.
- Save the PDF document in Acrobat.
- Rescan the PDF document using CommonLook PDF Validator to ensure that the failures related to links no longer appear.