Harper College
Harper Web Team

PDF Phase Out

To address a number of concerns with PDF accessibility and management, the Harper Web Team has begun a long-term project to significantly reduce the number of PDFs on Harper's main website.

What are the issues with PDFs?

  • PDFs often have multiple accessibility issues. Many PDFs, especially older PDFs, are not able to be read by screen readers. Many of the PDFs that are able to be read by screen readers are not "tagged" correctly and can result in a poor, confusing or incomplete experience for screen-reader users. Tagging PDFs correctly is possible, but it is can be a time-intensive process.
  • PDFs often have excessive file sizes. PDF file sizes can be as large as several megabytes, even for documents that appear simple. These large file sizes place demand on Harper's server storage, and can place an extra burden on students or other users who may be using slower computers, slower internet connections, or limited data packages.
  • PDFs are not often deleted when they go out of date. Site managers often upload PDFs as a way of quickly getting information onto the website. As the information goes out of date, however, many site managers will unlink a PDF but not remove the PDF itself. Even when a PDF is not linked to anything, it can still show up in Google searches and users can be misled by out-of-date PDFs.

What should you do?

  • Review and remove any PDFs that are no longer in use. Clean out the un-necessary PDFs in your site's directory in Omni CMS.
  • Consider posting your information as a standard web page. The Harper website is designed to be accessible to users with screen readers and have other accessibility features that make it a better choice for most content. 
  • Create pages using the new Simple Document template instead of uploading PDFs. The Harper Web Team has created a simplied version of the template it call "Simple Document". It has the blue heading and the site footer, but most of the other navigational elements have been removed to give the feel of a stand-alone document (see example). You can create a Simple Document in any existing "docs" folder. If you don't have a docs folder in your directory, please submit a web request.
  • Use web-based forms created in Formstack instead of PDF. To request a new form, or to update an existing form, submit a web request at: harpercollege.edu/webrequest  To request account license for Formstack, please create a ticket with the IT helpdesk (Technology Purchasing Request). Licenses cost $100/account/year.
  • Make the PDFs you do post accessible. In cases where posting a PDF is the best way to present the information, please ensure that it meets our accessibility guidelines (see "How to make a PDF accessible" below). 

New protocols

As the Harper Web Team works to reduce the number of PDFs across the site, we will be instituting new site management protocols:

  • You will be asked to review your PDFs and other files annually. The Harper Web Team will be asking you on an annual basis to review all files on your site to ensure they are up-to-date and useful for our users. The timing of this review is to be determined, but it will likely coincide with summer or winter breaks.
  • PDFs that are not linked to anything will be removed. As new PDFs are uploaded to the site, out-of-date versions sometimes get left on the server. The Web Team is working to identify and remove these PDFs. Any PDF that is not linked to an active page will be removed from the live web server.
  • PDFs, Word and Powerpoint documents will be moved into a folder called "docs". All existing "pdf" directories will be phased out, and you will not be able to upload documents anywhere but a "docs" folder. Similarly, you will not be able to upload images anywhere but an "images" folder.

Questions?

If you have questions, please submit them through the Web Request form at: harpercollege.edu/webrequest

A representative from the Harper Web Team will follow up with you within a few business days.

How to make a PDF accessible

All PDFs must follow accessibility guidelines. Here are some guidelines for creating and checking your files for accessibility.

How to make a remedy accessibility issues in existing PDFs

Here are some basic steps to remedy some common accessibility issues with PDFs. Note: These instructions are valid for Adobe Acrobat Pro. Please contact the Harper Web Team for assistance. 

1. Set the Title and Language

Open your PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro. Go to File > Properties 

In the Description tab, type in a Title for the PDF document. The Author can be the department that is responsible for the content. If you're not sure, you can set the author as Harper College. Optional: Enter a short Subject and or up to three Keywords if it would be helpful to include additional information beyond what's in the Title and Author.

Next, click the Advanced tab in the Properties window, and find the dropdown box for Language, and set it to English (or the appropriate language).

When you're done, click OK, the click the Save icon (looks like a floppy disc).

2. Set Structured Types

In Acrobat Pro, click on the Tools > Accessibility. This will open a menu at the right with a number of Accessibility options. Choose Reading Order. This will open the Reading Order window. In the lower half of that window, there is an option to toggle between "Page Content Order" and "Structured Types"....choose "Structured Types".

If the PDF is newer, hopefully its elements are highlighted as paragraphs, headings, figures, tables, etc. In many cases, you will need to identify or revise the structure. To that, draw a box around a block of text so that Acrobat selects the text, then click on the correct button to label it. 

Note: The first heading should always be Heading 1, and there should always be a Heading 1 for every PDF.

3. Set Page Content Order

In the Reading Order window, toggle to Page Content Order. This will display (in numerical order) the order in which all the elements will be read on a screen reader. Then click the Show Order Panel button. The Order Panel on the left shows a list of elements in the order in which they will be read. To change the order, you can drag an element up and down on the list in the Order Panel. Put all the elements in an order that would make the most sense to someone experiencing the document verbally through a screen reader. 

4. Set Alternative Text

For elements that are Figures (including images, illustrations, logos) you may need to set alternative text if the figure is meaningful and important to the understanding of messages within the document.

After you are done, Save and upload your document.

 

Last Updated: 12/14/23