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This document discusses the importance of PDF accessibility, revealing that 85% of a sampled group of 20 PDFs were not tagged appropriately, highlighting a significant issue in document accessibility. It outlines the steps to create accessible PDFs using authoring tools like Adobe PDFMaker, Word, and others. Key recommendations include raising awareness through educational efforts and implementing stronger accessibility policies. Additionally, it offers practical guidance for ensuring PDFs include necessary accessibility features and provides resources for further learning.
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Making PDFsAccessible Terrill Thompson tft@uw.edu http://staff.washington.edu/tft @terrillthompson
An Informal Survey • Google search: • “Purdue filetype:pdf site:purdue.edu” • Randomly selected 20 PDFs • Selected PDFs from different sub-domains
Results • 17 of 20 (85%) are not tagged • 3 of 20 (15%) are tagged • 0 of 3 tagged PDFs is fully accessible • Only 1 of 6 PDFs created with Adobe PDFMaker is tagged (accessibility is enabled by default in PDFMaker)
Conclusion • PDF Accessibility is a major problem • It is not difficult to create a tagged PDF • Therefore, the problem is likely caused by lack of awareness • The problem could be addressed by: • Massive educational effort • Stronger policies
What makes an electronic document accessible? • Text alternatives for non-text content • Information, structure, & relationships • HTML, Word, & PDF all support these features
Adobe PDF • Three general types: • Image • Image with embedded fonts • Tagged (optimized for accessibility)
To Create an Accessible PDF • Use an authoring tool that supports: • Creating documents with headings & subheadings • Adding alt text to images • Exporting to tagged PDF • Use these accessibility features anytime you create a document
Export to Tagged PDF • Use “Save as…” > “PDF” • In Microsoft Word and PowerPoint 2010 (Windows only) • Beware the “Minimize Size” button • Use Adobe PDFMaker plug-in • In Microsoft Word and PowerPoint prior to 2010 (Windows only) • Adds an Adobe menu & toolbar to Word • Installed automatically with Adobe Acrobat
Other Authoring Tools that support Tagged PDF • Adobe InDesign • Open Office • LibreOffice • Corel Word Perfect • Lotus Symphony • Maybe a few others: • http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/2011AprJun/0061.html
With Adobe Acrobat, you can make an accessible PDF from an inaccessible one
PDF Accessibility Repair (General) Workflow • Recognize text (if needed) • Tag document (if needed) • Touch up reading order, alt text, etc. • Touch up structure • especially, add or modify headings • Create links from URLs • Specify language • Do a full accessibility check
PDF Forms • Use Adobe Acrobat Pro to add or edit forms interactivity • Key accessibility goals: • Tab order is correct • All fields have labels (tooltips) • All checkboxes have tooltips that include the overall group prompt • All radio buttons have the same name, a tooltip for the full set of buttons, and a meaningful button value for each option • Colors are used to provide clear visual indication of focus • Markup the form fields first. Then add tags.
Adobe LiveCycle Designer • Build forms from scratch • Key accessibility goals are the same as with any PDF forms • Start with a blank document (don’t use a template – they’re not accessible) • Careful: Tags can’t be edited later with Acrobat Pro!
Where to Learn More • Adobe Accessibility • http://adobe.com/accessibility • WebAIM on PDF Accessibility • http://www.webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/ • California State University PDF Tutorials • http://tinyurl.com/y2dnyl2 • Karen McCall’s book • http://www.karlencommunications.com/products.htm • WebAIM Discussion List • http://webaim.org/discussion/