Tag PDFs for Screen Readers Automatically in Microsoft Power Automate
In this article, we will walk through how you can utilize Adobe PDF Services connector in Microsoft Power Automate to automatically tag PDF documents for screen readers. We will see how in just a few steps; you can create a streamlined workflow in Microsoft 365 to get PDFs optimized quickly.
Why is tagging in PDF documents important?
Accessibility is a challenge around the world. According to Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, 42% of reviewed Federal websites failed to meet accessibility tests for users with disabilities. PDFs can also present a challenge to organizations as PDFs can come in a variety of formats such as scanned, digital-native PDFs, as well as from different apps that don’t create optimized PDF documents.
Adobe Acrobat is one of the primary tools that organizations have used for optimizing PDF documents. Autotag Document and Accessibility Checker tools in Acrobat help ensure that PDF documents have proper accessibility tags. Accessibility tags allow screen readers to understand the appropriate structure and reading order in a document to help screeners navigate and describe components of the document.
While the amount of content grows larger and larger, there is a large skill gap to meet the needs to remediating all this content. According to Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology (PEAT), an organization focused on fostering collaborations technology that build inclusive workplaces for people with disabilities, 50% of organizations said it was difficult for their organization to find candidates with accessibility experience. This means that the appropriate talent to do this work has limited resources. They need solutions to help address the ever-growing amount of content, while at the same time with limited resources that they have.
The Solution
Adobe Acrobat Services offers a PDF Accessibility Auto-Tag API. This service uses Adobe Sensei AI service to analyze your document, its structure, and creates automatic tags in the document. A screen reader can then read these tags. It works with both PDF documents that are digital-native (like ones converted from Word) as well as scanned PDF documents.
This API is remarkably accurate. Some statistics have shown that it can increase productivity of accessibility teams by 40%. However, it is important to note that this does not declare that your PDF documents are instantly compliant with Section 508 or PDF/UA. Tagging can often require interpretation that computers are not able to decipher. To meet those compliance, you may still need to review your PDF documents in Acrobat. However, this can raise the minimum bar significantly from the many PDFs that are posted on websites that do not even contain tags for screen readers.
Scenario
What we will describe below is how you can create a solution with Power Automate where PDF documents uploaded to a specific folder in SharePoint will get automatically tagged using Adobe PDF Accessibility Auto-Tag API and then placed into a processed folder. This is ideal as it would allow you to start remediating documents in bulk directly inside of Microsoft 365.
While we are using a OneDrive folder in this example, this will similarly work with SharePoint, BOX, Dropbox, and other services available within Microsoft Power Automate.
What you will need
- Adobe Acrobat Services
- Microsoft Power Automate (with access to premium connectors)
- Microsoft OneDrive
- Adobe Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Pro (optional if you want to update the tags after processing)
Get your credentials
To get credentials for Adobe PDF Services connector in Microsoft Power Automate, follow the steps that are documented here to create trial credentials and add them to your Microsoft Power Automate environment.
Once you complete these steps, you can add any of the PDF Services connector actions to your flow.
Prepare your OneDrive folders
For this simple example, we have created two folders in OneDrive. The first folder is “Input”, which will be our drop folder for the PDF documents we want to have auto-tagged. The second is the “Output” folder where we want the tagged PDF documents to go after they have been processed.
Create a new flow
Let’s walk through how to create a new flow. We will need it to do the following:
- Trigger when a file is added to the folder.
- Send the PDF file to Adobe PDF Services to create a tagged PDF.
- Save the output into the Output folder.
To create your new flow:
- Go to Power Automate.
- In the sidebar, click on Create.
- Select Automated cloud flow.
4. For your flow name, set it to your desired name. Ex. Accessibility Demo.
5. Under Choose your flow’s trigger, select When a file is created (OneDrive for Business).
Setup trigger
Next you will want to setup your trigger to get files from the Input folder.
- Click on the Folder icon in Folder field.
2. Navigate to your Input folder in OneDrive.
Add Create tagged PDF action
1. Click on + New Step.
2. Search for Adobe PDF Services.
3. Click on Adobe PDF Services.
4. In the actions list, select Create tagged PDF.
5. If at this point you are getting asked to enter your credentials, please follow the steps in the Get your credentials above or go to the link here before continuing.
6. Put your cursor into the Filename field and use the Dynamic content panel to enter the Filename variable into that field.
7. Put your cursor into the File content field and use the Dynamic content panel to add the File content variable into that field.
8. Under the Generate Report in XLS Format, set it to No. If you set this to yes, it will return a ZIP file. If you set it to no, it returns just the PDF document.
Save file into OneDrive
In the next step w[MG1] e want to save the file into OneDrive in the Output folder.
1. Click on + New step.
2. Search for OneDrive for Business.
3. Select OneDrive for Business.
4. In the list of actions, choose Create file.
5. Click on the folder icon in the Folder Path field and navigate to your Output folder.
Put your cursor in the File Name field and use the Dynamic content panel to add the File Name field from the Create tagged PDF action.
Try new flow
Unlike some other Triggers in Power Automate, OneDrive triggers are not instantaneous. It checks to see if there are new files every 60 seconds. You can force this to be more instantaneous by putting your flow into Test mode.
1. While you are editing your flow, click on Test in the top-right corner.
2. Select Manually.
3. Click on Test.
Drop files in Input folder
To test his flow, you will want to use a PDF document that does not have Tags in them. You can check them by opening your PDF document in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
1. Open your document in Acrobat Reader on your computer.
2. In the left sidebar, click on the Tags icon.
3. If you see “Not Tags available”, this is a good test document.
Now you can test by adding new files to your Input folder in OneDrive. In Microsoft Power Automate you will be able to see when the action starts.
If it successfully runs, you will see checkmarks next to each action.
Checkout files in Acrobat to view tags
In Adobe Acrobat, you can open documents directly from OneDrive, SharePoint, and other repositories.
1. Open Adobe Acrobat.
2. Click on Home.
3. In the left sidebar, click on Add file storage.
4. Click on Add under OneDrive.
5. Enter your email address associated with your OneDrive account and click OK.
6. Login to your Microsoft 365 account.
7. When prompted to give permission, Accept permissions for Adobe Acrobat.
8. You can then navigate OneDrive directly in Acrobat.
When you open your PDF document, you will then see that the Tags have now been added to the PDF. You can then review the tags and update them in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Final thoughts
With the large volume of content that needs to be optimized for accessibility, having tools to help accelerate this process at scale is key. By using PDF Accessibility Auto-Tag in Microsoft Power Automate, you can help accelerate the process of ensuring that PDFs are accessible for everyone. To learn more and get started, get a free trial of Adobe Acrobat Services, and try for yourself in Microsoft Power Automate.
