The Reading Order tool in Adobe Acrobat is key for making PDFs accessible (especially for screen readers). Below are practical, field-tested best practices to ensure your document reads correctly and passes accessibility checks. This is usually the easiest way when content is “lumped together.” The Reading Order tool lets you create new tags for specific regions and split incorrectly grouped content.

Step 1

Always run “Autotag Document” before adjusting reading order.

Step 2

Go to All Tools → Prepare for Accessibility → Reading Order

Step 3

Turn on:

• Show page content groups
• Structure types

Step 4

Select the tag label box (top-left of the combined region)

• Right-click → Delete Selected Item Structure
  → This removes the bad combined tag

Step 5

Now rebuild them separately:

• Drag a box just around the heading → click Heading (H3)
• Drag a second box around the paragraph → click Text/Paragraph