Designating Items Correctly

Changing the Designation of an Item that has Been Tagged Inappropriately

You may find that a block of text has been tagged as a table when it should be "text."  To change a designation, use the TouchUp Reading Order window:

  1. Click on the TouchUp Reading Order tool.  Note that most designation type buttons on the TouchUp Reading Order window are not active.
  2. Click on the number located in the upper left-hand corner of the item block:

    Click on the item block number. Block of content as tagged in a PDF. Viewed using the TouchUp Text tool in Acrobat.
  3. The designation type buttons on the TouchUp Reading Order window are now active.
  4. Click the designation button on the TouchUp Reading Order window that correctly identifies the block.  (In the screenshot below, a block of text has been incorrectly identified as a Table.)  This designation needs to be changed to "Text.")

    1) Click the number of the incorrectly identified block. 2) Click the correct designation for the block to change it. Screenshot of TouchUp Reading Order tool being used in Acrobat.

It may occur that after you change the designation of an item, it is still tagged incorrectly.  In this case, you may need to designate the item block as "Background" first and then re-tag the item by applying the correct designation.

  1. Click on the number located in the upper left-hand corner of the item block.
  2. The designation type buttons on the TouchUp Reading Order window are now active.
  3. Click the designation button of Background.  After designating an item as Background, the tags for that item will be deleted from the tags panel.
  4. Using your cursor, which should look like a crosshair, proceed to select the item you need to re-tag by drawing a box around the item.  A light blue box selects the item.
  5. From the TouchUp Reading Order window, select the correct designation type.  The item block should now be tagged correctly.

Video Tutorial - How to Change the Designation of an Item Tagged Incorrectly (4:18)

Identifying an Item That Has Not Been Tagged

Sometimes image or blocks of text are not identified (or 'tagged") in a document.  Assistive technology will not read the un-tagged content to a user.  A quick way to tell if content is not tagged in the PDF is to run an Accessibility Full Check of the document based on the criteria of "All content is contained in the document structure":

  1. Go to the Advanced menu > Accessibility > select Full Check.  The Accessibility Full Check dialog box displays.
  2. Under Checking Options, select Adobe PDF from the Name drop down menu.
  3. Under Checking Options, de-select all checkboxes except for the criteria named "All content is contained in the document structure" (Make sure this checkbox is selected.)

    Running an Accessibility Full Check based on "All content is contained in the document structure" criteria to check for content that is missing tags.
  4. Select the Start Checking button.

    Accessibility Report indicates that some items on document are not tagged.
  5. After Acrobat finishes checking your document, an Accessibility Report will appear on the left side of the window indicating if any content is missing tags (see screenshot at right).
  6. You can click on the links in the report to navigate to the content missing tags on the page.  The report will also give you hints on how to repair the errors found.  Read carefully through the report and make corrections as necessary.


Another way to tell what items are not tagged in your documents is by looking at the PDF and noting the areas that are not highlighted by a gray numbered item block and using the Order panel to locate the area specifically on a page.  Likely, locate un-tagged content by looking at items that are within item blocks of content they do not belong in (for example, an image and a paragraph of text are grouped in an item block tagged as image.  The text content is not tagged correctly).  After locating the areas in your document that are not tagged, you will need to do the following to tag the content correctly:

  1. Click on the TouchUp Reading Order tool.  Your cursor will change to a crosshair.
  2. Navigate to the content on the page that needsd to be tagged correctly.
  3. Drag a box around the content.  It will be selected.
  4. Click on the button that correctly identifies the selected content (using the TouchUp Reading Order window).
    1. In the screenshot below, text has been incorrectly identified with the figure above it.  To fix the problem, select [by dragging around] the text, then click the button labeled "Text" in the TouchUp Reading Order window:
    Drag around the content to select it. Screenshot of TouchUp Text tool being used in Acrobat to "tag" a block of content that has not been tagged.

Don't forget the Tags and Content panels.  These panels may also come in handy when tagging content.

Video Tutorial - How to Identify Items Not Tagged (5:10)

Identifying Items as "Background"

After designating an item as Background, the tags for that item will be deleted from the Tags panel and will not be read by screen reading software.  For example, you may have an image on a page that is merely present for aesthetic purposes (decorative image).  This type of image is not considered important content to be read and can be ignored.  This type of content is also known as an "artifact" in Acrobat.

To identify content as "Background:"

  1. Click on the TouchUp Reading Order tool.
  2. Locate the content on the page that needs to be tagged as "Background."
  3. Click on the number located in the upper left-hand corner of the item block.
  4. Click the button on TouchUp Reading Order window labeled Background.

Video Tutorial - How to Designate an Item as Background in the Tags Panel (1:32)

Credits

  • This training has been funded in part by the EnACT (Ensuring Access through Collaboration and Technology) grant. 
  • Written and developed by Sacramento State Online Learning professionals, Monica Range and Cryssel Vera and technical crew, Ivan Vajar, Ken Young, and Jennifer Wicks with guidance from the CSU Professional Development Work Group.

Support

If you have difficulty accessing any material on this site or need an alternate format, or you just have questions and want to give feedback, contact the Accessible Technology Initiative.

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