Making a PDF or Image File Accessible as Text
A PDF file of a text document can present either an “image” of the text or the text
itself. PDF image files, and even native image files depicting text, can be converted
and made accessible so that the text can be searched, copied, or read by an assistive
device such as a screen reader.
Converting a PDF Image File into an Accessible PDF
1. Open the PDF that you wish to examine.
2. On the Adobe Acrobat Pro menu, select “Edit” and then “Find.”
3. Type a word that appears in the document in the Find box and then select the
“return” or “enter” button on your keyboard.
4. If the PDF is accessible, the first occurrence of the word you are searching for
will be highlighted.
5. If the PDF is an image, a pop-up window will inform you “This page contains
only an image of a scanned page. There are no text characters. Would you like
to run character analysis to try to make the text on this page accessible?”
6. Select the “OK” button.
7. Another pop-up window will open with default options selected. Any of those
options can be selected and then edited. Accept or change the options and
then select the “OK” button.
8. Each page will be processed and straightened if necessary as the document is
analyzed for text.
9. When the process is complete, the first occurrence of your search term will
be highlighted in the document.
10. Select “File” and then “Save” to save the new accessible format.
Converting a Native Image File with Text into an Accessible PDF
1. Open Adobe Acrobat Professional.
2. Select File/Open.
3. At the bottom of the Open screen in the “Show” dropdown menu select “All
Files.”
4. Select the image file that you want to convert and then select the “Open”
button.
5. The process is identical to that of converting a PDF Image File. Follow the
directions for “To Convert a PDF Image File to Searchable Text” beginning
with Step 2 above.
6. Note that when you save the converted file, the new format will be a .pdf file.
The screen capture below depicts an image file that was re-analyzed and converted
to a searchable pdf, with the word “the” searched for and highlighted. (the original
image is from economicfreedom.org)