Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat (not Acrobat Reader) or other PDF-checking program. Find the Accessibility menu and open Full Check. Choose whether to generate and attach a report (it might be better to do this after any issues have been resolved, as evidence that the document has passed the checks). Generally, leave everything else ticked and run the checker.

Review the issues found by the checker, and fix as necessary. Make as many changes as you can in the program you used to create the document (eg add missing alt text, correct broken URLs, tag untagged content) and re-export to PDF.

Repeat the Full Check, and continue to troubleshoot until all issues have been resolved and the accessibility checker reports no further issues.

Things to check manually include that:

• bookmarks are all present and go to the correct page

• hyperlinks go to the correct destination

• images have the correct alt text attached

• File > Info > Properties is completed and correct

• reading order is correct, especially on pages with complex layout.

Some issues cannot be fixed in the original program and must be completed in Acrobat; you will need to redo them each time you export to PDF:

• Set the language for the document (generally English).

• Set the reading order to use the document structure.

• Change the layout and magnification settings, but be aware that users of assistive technology can override these settings. It is best not to set the document to open in full-screen mode or hide any of the user interface options, because the lack of toolbars could confuse some users.

• Add a base URL (eg the home page for the online publication).

• Add interactivity (eg hyperlinks or inputs) to objects such as buttons that you created in the layout program.