WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Are Forms in MS Word Accessible?

for

From: Steve Green
Date: Jan 7, 2022 7:23AM

No. If you create a form in Word and convert it to a PDF, all the form controls are lost. They get converted into images. You then need to add them all in Acrobat.

You should create the form in InDesign instead. When you export the PDF, the form controls are retained. You need to do little or nothing in Acrobat.

Note that there are significant constraints on the appearance of the form. For instance, you can design a nice looking checkbox in InDesign, but it will change into an ugly default checkbox as soon as you click it in Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

Steve