Ideally, almost all online content is available on the web page. But sometimes we need to have users download a PDF or other file.

Wherever practical, include your content in the body of a page instead of linking to a Microsoft Word or PDF file.

If you do need to link to a non-web page file, be sure to:

that the file is as accessible as it can be
warn people within the link text if a link is to a download such as a PDF

Accessible PDFs

The best method to make a PDF accessible is to create the document in an application that produces tagged PDFs–such as Microsoft Word–and then convert it to PDF format.

This involves the correct use of formatting such as headings within Word do that the software knows what types of content the various pieces of text are. And just like in web pages, you should provide alt text for images, and utilize lists.

Tutorials

Creating Accessible Documents in Microsoft Word

Creating Accessible PDFs from Microsoft Word