Accessibility Guide for Papers

This page is still under construction :)
I do not claim to have every step 100% accurate. Feel free to update/correct steps, if needed.

What do you need to make your PDF accessible?

Currently, you need the pro version of Adobe Acrobat. If you do not have a license, talk to the current admin. 

For the sake of your own sanity: create a shortcut for the accessibility in Acrobat

How to start?

Just to make this clear right from the start. There will always be failed tests for the first accessibility check ;-) 
But do not worry. 

Do the reading order before you add the alternative texts, as old figure elements will turn invalid and cause tagging problems.  The problem is that otherwise there will be alternative texts for elements that are not associated with any content in your pdfs since combining figures and captions creates new tags.

Fixing failed tests

Document -> Tagged PDF - Failed

Document -> Title - Failed

Alternate Text -> Figures alternate text - Failed

Headings -> Appropriate nesting - Failed

Do not believe the low number of errors. There are more of them once you start.

Logical Reading Order - Needs manual check

Remove  conference headers from the reading order (highlight with cursor -> select Background/Artifact -> Click on the new Block -> Show Order Panel -> Click on matching Panel -> Delete) 
If this does not work -> clear page structure, set the structure again and leave out the header -> update: DO NOT do this. It is just pain.
Go to the content page and create an artifact for the header. Make an accessibility check and afterwards the header is no longer causing problems in the reading order

Combine figures and their captions (see common pitfalls to avoid pain) 

Setting the headings correctly here most likely avoids the time-costly way to fix Headings -> Appropriate nesting - Failed in the there described way.

Page Content -> Navigation links - Needs manual check

Color contrast - Needs manual check

Make sure, that your PDF is working for color-blind people. You can manually check this rule with right-click -> pass.

Common pitfalls

Combine Figure + Caption -> Remove empty figure Tags (otherwise there will be empty figures for alternative texts)