Step 1: Is the PDF Text-Based?-2
A common method for making PDF documents is to place a paper copy of a document into a scanner and view the newly-scanned document as a PDF with Adobe Acrobat. Unfortunately, scanners only create an image-based PDF or an image of text, not searchable and editable text. This means the content is not accessible to users who rely on assistive technology. Additional modifications must be made to make the document accessible.
A text-based PDF allows the use of copy-and-paste text selection, along with searching for keywords. Text PDF files are much smaller than scanned PDF files. To create a text-based PDF document, create the document normally in your word processor, and export as a PDF.
How to determine if a PDF is a scanned document
The Page Appears to be Skewed
Sometimes sheets are not properly fed into the scanner. The result is the page appears to be crooked or skewed on the screen. Lines of text will not be straight but will appear to slant up or down.
Search for characters that appear on the page
Use the find command in Acrobat to search for text that appears on the page.
Select Edit > Find and type in a word that appears on the page in the search field.
If the document was scanned, Acrobat will not be able to complete a word search. If the word search fails, a message will appear: “Acrobat has finished searching the document. No matches were found.”
What Type of PDF Do You Have?
Explore the two PDF types you may encounter and how to approach each.
Oh No - the PDF is image-based!
If the PDF is image-based, you can use Adobe Acrobat DC's optical character recognition tool (OCR). Please note that Adobe's Adobe Acrobat DC's optical character recognition tool is limited and not always effective. It is highly recommended to use a dedicated OCR tool, or if possible, find the original source document.
Phew - the PDF is text-based.
Do you have the source document?
If you have an inaccessible PDF, but have access to its source document or the original document, for example, the Microsoft Word version, it is advisable to remediate in the word processor's environment, as this will be much easier.