Scanned PDFs: how to make them accessible
A scanned PDF is a picture of a page. A screen reader cannot read a picture, so scanned documents are among the hardest to make accessible and the most common failure on small government sites.
Step 1: recognise the text (OCR)
In Acrobat Pro use All tools → Scan & OCR → Recognize Text → In this file. OCR adds a text layer, making the words selectable and searchable. The file still needs tags: Acrobat lists "Tagged PDF" as a separate check.
Step 2: tag the structure
After OCR the document still needs tags for headings, tables and reading order. For short documents, tagging in Acrobat is practical. For long or complex ones, check the quality of the OCR carefully, because errors in recognised text become errors in what a screen reader says.
Often best: recreate it
For a short, frequently used document such as a form or a fee schedule, retyping it in Word with proper styles and exporting an accessible PDF is often faster and more reliable than repairing a scan.
Guides last checked 2026-10-18. General information, not legal advice. Menu names can differ between software versions.