Adobe Acrobat PDF AutoTag

[BrendonKoz]

PDF Auto-Tag

PDF Auto-Tag uses the Adobe PDF Services API and lets a person send chosen PDF files to Adobe for accessibility tagging. Adobe adds a tag structure so the document can be read by assistive technology. The tagged file, and an optional Excel report, come back to the site for review.

Because some documents may already be accessible prior to upload, and the Adobe API rebuilds the tagging, this module does not send every PDF automatically. A person must check a checkbox associated to the particular file on page save, or choose Reprocess on the dashboard (for an already processed file), before the particular file in question is processed by Adobe's API.

With PDFs also needing to be compliant for purposes of accessibility, but the work to reach that level is far more cumbersome, this can ease the burden -at least a little bit- for some documents. The Auto-Tag API is not perfect, and is highly dependent on how the original document was authored, but can help alleviate the first steps towards compliance. It does not first check whether a document is tagged (room for improvement), nor can it handle PDF files generated by the webserver, but it can handle those uploaded directly.

What you can do

• Watch selected File fields, including files inside Repeater and Repeater Matrix items.
• Watch a file subfield inside a Combo field, including a Combo that sits inside a repeater.
• On the page editor, offer an unchecked box named “Process with Adobe Auto-Tag” for each watched PDF.
  • Optionally offer a second box, “Also generate the Excel report,” which appears only after the first box is checked.
• Keep a record of each request: who asked, when, and whether Adobe finished, failed, or the file has not yet been sent.
• Review every watched PDF from Setup, then PDF Auto-Tag.
• Download the tagged PDF and its associated Excel report, as provided from Adobe.
• Replace the file in the field with Adobe’s tagged PDF, or restore the previous file from a backup.
  • Optionally make this step automatic in the module configuration.
• Mark a PDF as already accessible so the editor stops offering it. That mark stays on this site and does not call Adobe.
• Optionally email the person who requested a job when it finishes or fails.

Tested against admin themes of Default, AdminUiKit (Core Original), and the UiKit Konkat theme's default settings.

Available on GitHub, and the modules directory (pending approval).

Adobe offers a free tier for their API with up to 500 calls per month. The API is chatty, so one file request may use up to 7 calls, but for a low volume site may be all you need.