Create Alternative Text in Adobe Acrobat DC

Introduction to Creating Alternative Text in Adobe Acrobat DC Pro

Almost 7.3 million people in the United States rely on screen readers to fully access documents such as PDFs through Adobe Acrobat.

What alt text (short for alternative text) does is create a box of text in place of an image. This is a short description of what the image is, contains, or is intending to represent.

Consider take the Proactive Accessibility Certificate Workshop Series.

The Basics for Adding Alternative Text in Adobe Acrobat Pro

1. Open the document in Adobe Acrobat.
2. Click Edit PDF on the right-hand side of the screen.
   • This will prompt a review of the file by Optical Character Recognition Software, which will identify text, tables, and images in the document.
   • Once this operation is complete, review and correct the document to ensure full accessibility of the text.
3. Click Tools in the upper-left corner.
4. Click the Accessibility option at the bottom of the menu; this will bring up an additional menu on the right side of your document.
5. Click Auto-tag Document in the Accessibility Menu to identify all images.
6. Click Set Alternative Text; this will open an additional window with the title ‘Set Alternative Text’.
7. Type the Alternative Descriptive Text in the small window that appears on the screen (see Tips for Writing Alt-Text at the bottom).
   • Note: If the picture is decorative, or fulfills no purpose check, the box labeled ‘Decorative Image. This will prevent the image from being read by screen readers.
8. Click on the right arrow to move to the next image in the document.
9. Click the Save & Close button once all images have been given alternative text.