Creating Accessible PDFs eLearning
Reducing compliance risk through short scenario-based training
Target Audience: Employees working in business and organisations throughout the EU who routinely export PDFs
Responsibility: Instructional Designer and eLearning Developer
Tools Used: Canva Pro, Nano Bannana, Claude AI, Webflow, MS Word
Deliverable: 15-minute scenario-based simulation
Time & Constraints: A 3 week deadline and budget constraints required efficient workflows and rapid prototyping using AI
Overview
Most PDFs in EU workplaces fail accessibility standards and employees don't know it
Roughly 1 in 10 people in Germany and 1 in 4 across the EU live with a disability, yet most PDFs created in the workplace include no accessibility tags. Since June 2025, the BFSG requires all digital content including documents (PDFs) to meet accessibility standards, but audits show that 67–88% of PDFs fail compliance.
This tracks with my own independant research and workplace experience.
Inaccessible documents can frustrate customers/employees, risk fines and damage organisational credibility. Research showed this issue is not a motivational issue, but an awareness and skills gap found throughout multiple departments across many sectors.
A scenario that puts learners in the moment consequences become real
To close the awareness and skills gap, I designed a 15-minute scenario-based e-learning module that puts learners in real business situations where their PDF accessibility decisions have immediate, tangible consequences. This learning is supported though goal checkpoints and accountability measures.
It discloses and demonstrates core skills like adding alt text, structuring headings, and checking reading order, while revealing what happens when accessibility is skipped. Recovery opportunities let them correct mistakes and reinforce learning without frustration.
It focuses on one behavioural shift: consistently checking and applying accessibility tags before export.
Starting with the behaviour, not the content
Most compliance training starts with what employees need to know. This project started with what they needed to do differently and worked backwards from there. Action mapping forced every design decision through a single filter: does this sustainably change what someone does at work to achieve the business goal?
Design
Eight behaviours stood between learners and compliance
Together with the SME we created an action map for the demo story to ensure that all actions align with achieving the main goal:
Business Goal: Reduce inaccessible PDF rate from current baseline to under 20% within 6 months mitagating compliance risk, avoiding lost time through rework and fielding complaints.
Measurement & Accountability: An accessibility lead will be appointed to run monthly PDF sampling, act as the go to for all related questions and conduct any further training. Monthly sampling results shared with team. Non-compliant documents returned to creator for correction within 48 hours.
Observable Actions Learners Must Demonstrate After Training Module
* Select font size and style that supports readability and accessibility standards
* Add meaningful alt text and decide which images and non text elements are informative vs descriptive
* Structure content with semantic headings
* Correctly format lists and decide between bullets or numbers
* Write meaningful text links
* Run accessibility checks before distribution to confirm document readiness
* Export document as a PDF with "Document structure tags" option enabled
Storyboarding Hamza's journey to his first PDF/A
After identifying the most important actions to focus on, I worked with the SME to identify the learning objectives and use these to craft a realistic story around the actions. We decided to focus the story on Hamza, a HR professional at a medium sized company. He would face choices about what to do, what not to do.
Since the learner would be driving the scenario, they would make the choices and experience the corresponding consequences if they chose incorrectly. If they need help, they would turn to a virtual experienced colleague, Julia, before making a tough decision.
Learners complete an interactive hot spot quiz to reaffirm and test recall of where each accessibility setting is located in Word before ending the module.
Development
Accelerating authoring through AI
I used ChatGPT to write a short, but entertaining story with target language for A2-B1 learners in both German and English.
To match mental models of most learners, incorporate chunking and an increasingly challenging scaffold, I used the story format used by Duolingo (story lines, quiz, more lines, quiz etc).
Other decisions included:
* Adding feedback messages for correct/incorrect choices
* Reveal/hide grammar rules content
* Progress indicators to show where you are in the story and in the practice activity
For a fast Lean approach, I iterated on low-fidelity content and structure first until it was validated enough to create a design system.
To build a working prototype ready for user testing that could load the different stages with interactive games, progress tracking, score stats and more, I used to LLMs like ChatGPT to code it.
It was an intuitive, iterative process that easily allowed me to track the code being produced and make my own edits to the HTML and CSS to save time during each iteration.
Once the text-based storyboard was complete, I drafted the slides in Canva Pro and began illustrating the characters' different positions using AI within Affinity Designer from a base illlustration.
To save time and facilitate quick user testing, only one of the seven learning objectives were included in the demo. I chose the Alt Text scenario to demo because it is one of the simplest to understand while still being often ignored.
To rapidly prototype the demo I used Claude AI to code the core HTML, CSS and JS with clear placeholders and notes for me to edit the code with my preferences and content.
I chose a custom-coded approach to maintain full design control, keep costs low, and demonstrate that strong ID outcomes aren't dependent on any single authoring tool.
I deliberately kept the design as simple as possible using UX and visual design principles. However, by making the Julia avatar a 'Julia's Tip' button beside the 'Next' button it became visible the moment it was needed rather than out of immediate sight in the corner.
Results & Takeaways
To take this project further I would create a series of 10 stories and have learners go through one story a day for two weeks and evaluate progress using Kirkpatrick’s Model. This would involve several steps:
* Gauge learner satisfaction through post-training surveys or feedback forms.
* Assess knowledge acquisition by administering post-tests or quizzes on course content.
* Evaluate how effectively learners apply the new techniques to new language through observations from the SME.
* Measure the training’s impact on organisational performance by comparing end of year tests with previous years.
Five people who regularly export PDFs as part of their work tested the demo. All five correctly completed the demo without assistance and within a predicted timeframe. Testing surfaced two minor issues — button placement caused hesitation and one instruction was misread by two testers. Here's a few quotes:
'I knew about alt text, but I never knew you could add it in Word or where the accessiblity check button was' - Lilja, Product Owner
'I think that it could really be beneficial for HR people. It is detailed enough and makes the reader curious to follow these steps' - Christina, HR SME
This eLearning solution addresses the compliance risk through behaviour change and awareness. However, removing the need for training is often more sustainable than delivering it. A longer-term recommendation would be to evaluate whether a workflow tool such as an accessible document creation environment built into existing systems — could remove the dependency on individual behaviour change entirely.
The hardest lesson learned was coding without enforcing keyboard and screen reader usability principles with the AI from the start. AI frequently fails at this and it is up to the prompter to include this vital info upfront.
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