Bird's Eye Map of Western Washington University

Ensure PDF documents are machine-readable for accessibility and usability.

## What this means

A machine-readable PDF is one that can be easily processed by software, such as text-to-speech programs, 
search engines, and other data extraction tools. This typically means that the text in the PDF is selectable 
and can be copied, as opposed to being embedded as an image.

## Why it matters

1. **Accessibility**: Machine-readable PDFs are essential for people using screen readers or other assistive technologies, as these tools require text they can interpret.
2. **Searchability**: Machine-readable documents can be indexed by search engines, making the content more discoverable.
3. **Content Usability**: Ensuring that your PDFs are machine-readable allows users to interact with the content more effectively, like copying text or searching within the document.

## How to fix

1. **Avoid Scanned Documents**: Whenever possible, create PDFs directly from text-based sources rather than scanning paper documents.
2. **Use OCR on Scanned PDFs**: If you have a scanned PDF, use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to convert the image-based text into selectable, searchable text.
3. **Check Font Embedding**: Ensure that all fonts used in the PDF are properly embedded so that the text remains accessible on different devices and platforms.

## Testing Methodology

Silktide examines whether there is selectable text in a PDF to determine if it is machine-readable.

## Further Reading

- [Creating Accessible PDFs](https://www.adobe.com/accessibility/pdf/pdf-accessibility-overview.html)
- [Guide to Machine-Readable PDFs](https://www.webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/)

Ensure PDFs are machine readable

Western Washington University

Where this issue has occurred