Accessible documents - PDFs

If a PDF is inaccessible:

• It may be image-based and completely inaccessible (start with step 1) or
• text-based but untagged and only somewhat accessible (start with step 2)

Step 1: Converting an image-based document to text

IT's document converter service automatically converts image-based pdfs and images into semi-accessible, text-based electronic documents.

To request the service:

• Send an email message to convertdoc@umontana.edu from a University of Montana email account with the document you want converted attached.
• You should send as clean a copy of the original document as possible. The following contribute to poor quality PDFs:
  • underlining,
  • notes in the margins,
  • highlighting, and
  • smudged or fuzzy text.
• You should receive a return email with your converted document attached in both a text-based PDF format and text-based word document format within a few minutes.
• As with all other document creation, a final proofread will catch errors in optical character reading text conversions.

Step 2 - Tagging text-based document for complete accessibility

• Once you have a text-based document, the easiest way to tag it is to use a word processor. 
• The steps for tagging a document are included on the document page - select Document from the top right. 
• Once you've followed those steps, please save the document as a pdf.  Saving a document in PDF format is different than printing it as a PDF document.  The latter produces an image rather than a text-based document.