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PDF FAQs

Question 1. Why are PDFs not easily accessible?

Answer:

PDF stands for "Portable Document Format."  PDFs are essentially images of other documents, and they do not contain the original document's interactive features used by assistive technology devices such as devices used by individuals who are visually impaired.

While the convenience of the portable format makes these documents easy to upload between various digital platforms, they create more of a challenge when an additional layer of assistive technology is needed.

Question 2: Aren't PDFs better than Word or Powerpoint for uploading to D2L?

Can I make a PDF digitally accessible?

Answer:

Technically, yes. There are two approaches to making a PDF accessible:

1. When starting with a digitally accessible document such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, use a specific workflow when creating the PDF in order to preserve the original document's accessibility features.
2. When referring to a PDF for which you do not have the original resource,