Question
How to make a scanned PDF digitally accessible.
Answer
Scanned documents (PDFs) are common in academia as research articles and other material are shared to advance knowledge. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is the process that converts an image of text created by scanning a PDF, into a machine-readable text format. From this format, additional steps may be made to improve digital accessibility.
The University of Illinois offers a comprehensive video and article for using Adobe Acrobat DC for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to improve readability and accessibility.
Contact the IT Service Desk at (330) 941-1595 for assistance with adding Adobe Acrobat DC on your device, if necessary.