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PDF Accessibility — Form Field Has No Tooltip (Accessible Name)

criticaldocument scope

This PDF form has one or more fields where no tooltip has been set. The tooltip is the text a screen reader announces when a user tabs to that form field — without it, the user hears only 'text field' or 'checkbox' with no indication of what information should be entered or selected. This makes the form effectively unusable for blind users trying to complete a permit application, registration, or service request.

Who Is Affected

Blind and low-vision screen reader users cannot complete PDF forms where fields have no accessible name (tooltip). Voice control users cannot activate form fields by speaking their label. All users of assistive technology are blocked from completing forms with unlabeled fields.

What This Means

In PDF forms, the accessible name of a form field comes from the field's "Tooltip" property (sometimes called the "Name" in older versions of Acrobat). This is distinct from any visible label text that appears near the field — screen readers cannot automatically associate visually proximate text with a field unless the tooltip is explicitly set to match that label.

What fails:

  • Fields with an empty Tooltip property
  • Fields where the Tooltip contains only technical field names like "Text_Field_1" or "cb_agree"
  • Fields where the Tooltip does not match the visible label

Fix: Document

Using Adobe Acrobat Pro's Prepare Form tool:

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat Pro
  2. Go to Tools → Prepare Form — Acrobat detects existing form fields
  3. Double-click any form field to open its Properties dialog
  4. In the General tab, find the "Tooltip" field
  5. Enter a descriptive label that matches the visible label near the field:
    • Good: "First Name"
    • Good: "Date of Birth (MM/DD/YYYY)"
    • Good: "I agree to the terms and conditions (required)"
    • Bad: "TextField1" or empty
  6. For required fields, indicate in the tooltip: "Email Address (required)"
  7. Repeat for every field in the form
  8. Save the document

For checkboxes and radio buttons:

Tooltip text should describe what the checkbox/radio button represents:

  • Checkbox: "Subscribe to newsletter" or "I certify that the information provided is accurate"
  • Radio button group: each button should have a tooltip indicating its value in context: "Payment method: Credit Card", "Payment method: Check", "Payment method: Money Order"

Standard Reference

Primary WCAG criteria addressed:

Helpful Tools

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