This decision tree is designed to guide you towards the best alternative to remediating or sharing a PDF depending on its specific use case, as well as the resources available to help you do so. In general, we advise that you avoid using PDFs whenever possible. PDFs are one of the least accessible file formats and require extensive remediation to become compatible with assistive technology. 

Note: If you are working specifically with course materials, please check out our PDF Decision Tree for Courses.

1) Is this PDF still currently in use?

• Yes: Continue to question 2.
• No: Consider removing this PDF.

2) Is the content in this document updated or changed regularly?

• Yes: Don't use a PDF.
  • Note: Once you edit a remediated PDF, the accessibility formatting may be compromised. This means the PDF must be manually re-checked and fixed each time edits are made, which makes accessible PDFs inefficient for documents with non-static content.
• No: Continue to question 3.

3) Was this file originally created in Microsoft Office or Google?

• Yes: Do you have access to the original source document for the PDF?
  • Yes: Share the original file (i.e. Google Doc, .ppt, .docx). It is much easier to make these files accessible than it is to remediate PDFs.
    • Note: If you are using a PDF because the file needs to be distributed in a protected format, you can share Google files as "view-only" or Microsoft files as "read-only" to ensure they remain unmodifiable by recipients.
  • No: Consider exporting your PDF to Microsoft Word or Powerpoint via Adobe Acrobat and sharing the resulting .docx or .ppt version.
• No: Continue to question 4.

4) Is this a text-based document that can live on a website?

• Yes: Transfer the content over to a new webpage. (You can also publish it as a webpage using Google Docs.)
• No: Continue to question 5.

5) Is this PDF a form?

• Yes: Was the form created in-house in LSA? 
  
  • Yes: Turn it into a Google Form or Qualtrics form. 
    • Note: Google Forms is useful for quick and easy events or attendance forms, but does not guarantee data privacy. Qualtrics offers secure data collection and is better suited for research surveys or longer forms with extensive options.
  • No: If this is an external PDF that is owned by federal/state government (ie. HR employment files, tax files, legal documents) - keep the PDF as is.
• No: Continue to question 6.

6) Is this file used as an infographic or flyer?

• Yes: Is it being shared in an email or comms message?
  • Yes: If distributing a PDF as an email attachment, make sure to also include the text and important info inside the body of the email or message, so everyone can access the information. For social media posts, attached files/images should have alt text.
  • No: Was it created in Adobe InDesign or Canva?
    • Yes: Utilizing accessibility features in within Adobe InDesign can help mitigate the workload of remediating a finished PDF in Acrobat. Canva has some accessibility features, including PDF auto-tagging, but they are not PDF/UA or WCAG compliant and will still require manual remediation in Adobe Acrobat.
• No: Continue to question 7.

7) Does this document need to be printed?

• Yes: If providing a PDF for printing purposes, make sure all of the information is also available in an alternative accessible format (webpage, Word document, email, etc.).
• No: Remediate the PDF for accessibility via Adobe Acrobat or an external vendor.
  • Note: Some known vendors for PDF remediation include Appligent, BrailleWorks, Breck, Allyant, and Equidox. At this time, BrailleWorks is the only vendor listed above that is able to securely remediate PDFs containing sensitive information.