Introduction This post was created in response to questions shared by College of Education faculty before meeting on 4/8/2026. If there are further questions beyond the meeting faculty can:  Questions Question 1: Is there a solution to support the “PDF is not tagged” problem? Converting to a Microsoft Word document also requires a paid Adobe…

In a previous post on general PDF accessibility we’ve talked about the spectrum of PDFs and why starting with an accessible source file matters. This post focuses on one specific and especially challenging type of PDF, scanned image PDFs.  A scanned image PDF is a picture of a document saved as a PDF. These usually…

When assigning journal articles and book chapters, accessibility often starts with where the content comes from. Increasingly, newer journal articles are “born‑digital,” meaning they are created digitally from the start rather than scanned from print. This generally results in cleaner text and better structure, while older articles may rely on OCR that makes text readable…

Last week we discussed the barriers to access to PDFs and the broad spectrum of PDF. This week we’ll focus on the considerations for when creating PDFs from a Word document. Before exporting a Word document to PDF, it is worth pausing to consider whether a PDF is the best format for students in the…

When we talk about making PDFs accessible, it can sound like a single, straightforward task. In reality, PDFs exist on a spectrum. Where a PDF falls on that spectrum has a major impact on how accessible it already is and how much work it will take to remediate. Before talking about the specific kinds of…

Expectations As of April 24, 2026, all digital materials used in your teaching need to be compliant with the WCAG 2.1 AA standard for digital accessibility.  Digital accessibility is a legal requirement under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and a shared institutional responsibility at the University of Mary Washington. Every faculty member plays a…